According to the Congressional Management Foundation, 96% of the government officials declared physical mail is the most effective way to get action from politicians. That’s why The Shamecards collection was created: to target to specifically lawmakers. Through direct mailing, we send messages from American citizens directly to congresspeople’s mailboxes. By giving the option to select the congressperson the user wanted to send the postcard to, we gave the 1-to-1 communication a scale big enough to demand change and let them know all Americans want to be remembered by what they make them proud, not by mass shootings.

Despite the ongoing rise in mass shooting numbers, America still lacks commonsense gun laws. This is an issue hard to touch inside Congress, mainly because each state has its own laws.

Because the U.S. government was not acting on the subject, we directly attacked a trait Americans are most known for: their pride for their land. Change the Ref created the Shamecards, a postcard collection designed to demand gun law reform from Congress. Subverting the traditional greeting cards, which depict each city's landmarks, ours show what cities are becoming known for: mass shootings.

With no budget, we gathered artists across the world to illustrate more than 50 postcards, at least one for each state, making this a national campaign, and we made them available at shamecards.org. With a few clicks, they were sent directly to lawmakers’ mailboxes. Within seven days, thousands of postcards were sent.

Shamecards are more than just pieces of graphic art. Starting February 4, 2021, anyone could visit shamecards.org and send a postcard directly to lawmakers’ mailboxes to ask for gun law reform. With at least one postcard per state, we covered the whole country with our message.

Giving Americans the opportunity to send a direct message to their representatives, we enable them to send a 1-to-1 message directly to representatives’ mailboxes. More than this, we did it with massive scale, turning our message something as powerful and personal as a direct letter.

With that, every Congressperson in America was a possible recipient to get American citizens’ message: that’s not how we want to be remembered.

Through extensive research, we gathered enough data to depict at least one mass shooting per state in America. For this national effort, our target was all the communities affected by gun violence, and we designed at least one postcard for each state, covering the whole country.

We started our approach with a targeted message to these communities, and on February 11, we hosted an event in Parkland to launch the Shamecards. More than just pieces of graphic art, we made them available at shamecards.org. In a few clicks, users sent a postcard to Congress.

With a clear call to action, we asked for a change in gun laws before they change us forever.

The Shamecards were created to demand gun law reform directly from Congress. Subverting the traditional greeting card, which depicts each city’s landmark and memorable places, we created a new collection focused on what cities are becoming known for: mass shootings.

With more than 50 postcards illustrated by 30 artists worldwide, we set up the website, shamecards.org, to be a simple and intuitive experience. With a few clicks, the user had their postcard sent to the representative they had selected. After they clicked the send button, Change the Ref got the order and, with an original mailing set up, the postcards were sent directly to lawmakers’ mailboxes asking for gun law reform.

The Shamecards became more than just a collection of postcards, it became a powerful tool for change. In the first seven days, with no paid media, we garnered over 1.5 billion media impressions and a total earned media value of over $14 million.

The postcards created a thought-provoking conversation and, more than that, a movement for change in outdated gun laws. By putting pressure on lawmakers, the Shamecards managed to move congresspeople—U.S. Representatives Katherine Clark and Ted Deutch—in favor of our cause. They got voters and future voters supporting commonsense gun laws.

The reach was noticed from coast to coast, impacting culture by rethinking an American icon as the postcard is usually seen. And on the Parkland anniversary, President Biden released a statement about the Parkland shooting, demanding commonsense gun laws from Congress.