LA Mayor Eric Garcetti’s Office and his Youth Council to End Gun Violence created anti-gun campaign selling active shooter insurance

Mayor of Los Angeles, Eric Garcetti of put together a youth council to take part in a campaign that aims to get laws passed to limit the availability of guns. The council includes high school students from South Los Angeles, the Harbor area, and throughout the San Fernando Valley. The group is called Youth Council to End Gun Violence (MYCEGV)

Steven Bash is an El Camino Real Charter High School student who was part of the youth council team that hatched up this campaign idea, selling a supposed 'new' kind of insurance that protects against different varieties of gun violence. He freely admits that this is a “publicity stunt”, but believes it's a needed one. 

“I feel terrible that it’s come to this,” Bash said to the Dailynews, adding that the idea of gun violence insurance is “something that should never have to be a real thing.”

However, it is a real thing. It’s called active shooter coverage and it covers stuff like post-trauma counselling, PR, etc. More schools are getting them these days, which is pretty disconcerting to know.  

All of the ads direct Angelenos to 1-833-GUNSURE, a hotline that explains the real sender, and drives people to the campaign hub www.louderthanguns.org where people can share personal stories of gun violence.

On National Gun Violence Awareness Day, June 7th,  these “Gunsure Insurance” ads will be replaced by vibrant posters that urge Angelenos to take action, which again directs them to the website where they can learn how to get involved on a local level. 

Omelet served as the creative agency on this campaign, for Mayor Garcetti’s office, with the Youth Council acting as the client. In January, the MYCEGV and Omelet held a kickoff retreat to discuss the youth perspective on issues surrounding gun violence. Several creative workshops where held, to hear the youth angle until the core ideas surfaced which were then refined by Omelet.
 

Alas, jolting people with a fictitious premise, that isn't fictitious at all, doesn't quite work.

Ad agency: Omelet

Media Agency: Cross Media

Developer: The Beauty Shop