The Shock Value of Not Trying to Shock:

Our idea centered around creating a video about one of life’s most frightening events without overtly emotional or fearful imagery. Basic how-to information conveyed with intuitive illustrations and plain language. Simple and to-the-point.

It’s in the banal telling of this public health and survival story that screamed out to the public with tips on self-preservation. Without political leanings, left or right, we advocated proven and practical techniques for avoiding physical harm in case of a mass shooting.

To Do Something Right, Sometimes You Have to Do It Yourself:

This campaign was born out of a need to take immediate action. Not tomorrow. Now. This lead to a group of four individuals coming together to form the Concerned Citizens to Take Down Gun Violence.

From this core group, a simple poster was developed. Then a video. Research on the most practical tips for protecting oneself from public shootings commenced. Then simple graphic illustrations were created for both.

From there, we developed an educational website and pages on Instagram and Twitter that informed people of additional ways they could survive—and even prevent further shootings. They detailed insights on everything from mental health resources to identifying local shooting locales. All with the desire that gun violence would come to an end one day. And the hope that we could ultimately take down our video, posters, site and social postings.

Social Following, Site Visits, Followed by PR Attention.

Since July 2016, the Take Down Gun Violence campaign has seen a sizable jump on Instagram with followers numbering over 1,100. This includes organizations and individuals from a wide range of political leanings. In addition, we’ve site visits where the video is housed jump by 43% in 8 months.

Most importantly, the poster caught the attention of NYC security companies, New York City Police Department and the NYC Fire Department all of which followed our lead to use our video and poster then integrate them into their firearms protection programs.