Change the Ref, a non-profit organization with a mission to end gun violence, knows that gun reform is vital to accomplishing real change, and their pursuit can never be silenced, not even by a pandemic.

That's why, when the NRA tweeted at Christmas time that they would give Santa cookies in exchange for ammo, CTR and their community of supporters sprung to action. Together, we baked over 1,700 bullet-riddled gingerbread boys and girls, symbolizing all the lives lost to gun violence, to be delivered to the NRA's front door.

The National Rifle Association (NRA) used to be designed around firearm safety and competency. Over the years, it became the most shameless pro-gun lobbying organization in America, known for giving millions of dollars to politicians to push their radical agenda. And most recently, for using social media to monetize every holiday.

With everyone’s focus on the pandemic, gun violence seemed to have been solved in 2020. But when the NRA turned to social media to co-opt the holidays with a tweet that asked Santa for ammo in exchange for cookies, we knew we had to make it our goal to respond quickly and bring the conversation back to our main focus: gun reform.

We turned NRA’s tone-deaf tweet against them by responding with a pledge to bake 1,700 bullet-riddled cookies, one for each kid who dies every year in America because of gun violence. Then we baked these cookies and invited everyone around the country to bake their own and send them directly to NRA’s doorstep so they could leave them out for Santa.

Our response was covered and amplified by the media, quickly turning into a movement that reignited the anti-gun violence conversation and the need for gun reform in America.

Big national problems like gun violence deeply affects Everyday Americans. Since social media plays such a significant role in the battle to influence people’s perspectives on this issue, we knew our response needed to spark gun reform conversations throughout all social platforms to be successful.

That's why we used all of CTR's social media accounts to respond to the NRA's post quickly. Additionally, we partnered with the nation's top anti-gun organizations to amplify the initiative's reach, thus inciting more Everyday Americans to engage in the conversation to end gun violence.

After turning the NRA's tweet against them with our reply, we quickly started baking bullet-riddled cookies and invited Everyday Americans to also bake #onecookieperkid.

We utilized CTR's social media platforms (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube) to communicate the initiative since social media plays a crucial role when influencing perspectives on major issues like gun violence.

We also focused our efforts on amplifying the story in the news, as it plays an important role when shaping people’s opinions on big issues. Lastly, we delivered the cookies to the NRA six days after the tweet was sent, since we knew that speed of response was crucial to shift the conversation.

We were so successful, that for the first time ever in Change the Ref’s history, the nation’s top anti-gun organizations joined us in supporting the movement.

1. Surpassed 65M impressions through national and global media coverage, more than double the anticipated amount.

2. By all measures, we “went viral” with young adults on TikTok, delivering 472,000 views and 38% engagement despite having an audience of just 14k.

3. Top anti-gun violence activists David Hogg & Guns Down America amplified the message and joined the effort to bake bullet-ridden gingerbread boys and girls.

4. Along with our 1,700 cookies, over 19,000 more cookies were sent to the NRA from all over the country by supporters of our movement.