The bags of candy hearts were handed out directly to members of the press and public on the first anniversary of the Parkland shooting at MSD High School.

February 14, 2019 was the first anniversary of the Parkland, Florida shooting that took the lives of 17 people at MSD High School. Our client, Change the Ref, asked us to create a something to remember the tragedy, and to bring awareness to our nation's deadly gun legislation. It was also our objective to push our client's GoFundMe page to their goal of $100,000.

In lieu of a social post, we changed the USA's most iconic Valentine's Day candy from classic phrases like "Be Mine", "Call Me", and "XOXO" into something that more accurately reflected the reality of Valentine's Day in the Parkland, Florida community.

We changed the candy to phrases inspired by text messages sent from victims of the shooting, like "Call 9-1-1", "Are You OK?", "HELLO?", and "She's Dead". The candy was bagged up in a visual way that matched the traditional exchange of Valentine's Day candy within schools, and included a card that implored people to use this Valentine's Day to remember the 40,000 people who lose their lives each year due to gun violence. The card also provided a link for donations to help change gun legislation.

The majority of Americans don't associate Valentine's Day with the Parkland shooting, but they do associate it with candy and conversation hearts.

In 2019, the company making the iconic hearts declared bankruptcy, but was bought by another company. The new company could not produce the hearts in time, making 2019 the only year since 1901 that the hearts were not sold in stores. This gave us an opportunity to redirect the conversation.

We gave the candy out at Change the Ref's gun-reform mural unveiling due to high attendance numbers of press and public. Our $0 media budget meant sharing the candy online to amplify our message further.

By sharing the candy with media outlets, social media, and the public, we promoted our client's GoFundMe page, which exists to fund anti-gun legislation and prevent pro-gun lobbying.

The candy had to be made, shipped to NYC, bagged, and distributed within two weeks of concept approval to be ready in time for Valentine's Day (the anniversary of the shooting).

The bags were handed out to members of the press and public in NYC on Valentine's Day.

Photos of the bags and candy were also organically posted on social media, and became the most engaging post in the history of Change the Ref's existence.

With a budget of $560 and a $0 media budget, we garnered over 10,000,000 potential impressions. Change the Ref's GoFundMe donations rose from around $90,000 to over $100,000 within days of the candies being distributed and shared on social media.

Change the Ref's Instagram post received over 14,000 likes and almost 200 comments, when the average engagement on posts hovered around 1,000 likes and 10-20 comments.

Pictures of the hearts were shared on social media by accounts like The Hill (3.2m Twitter followers), REM (4.5m Facebook followers), and others.