As a creative director at Minneapolis-based agency Preston Spire was pulling into an Aldi parking lot one day, he listened to ​​his children describe an active shooter drill held in their classroom. It made him wonder, as he was paying to rent a shopping cart, “How long would it be before they could rent bulletproof vests at the market, too?” according to the agency.

That seemingly ridiculous notion became the inspiration for Preston Spire’s “The New Life Vest,” a campaign for Change the Ref, an advocacy group fighting the mass shooting epidemic. The effort captured attention—without getting too political—with a stunt that involved encouraging people to wear a 16-pound bulletproof vest during daily activities including grocery shopping, walking the dog, or eating in a public park. It was backed by a fake infomercial that plugged the vests with lines such as “Gun laws aren’t changing, so just change clothes.” 

Preston Spire also enlisted the participation of Change the Ref founders Manuel and Patricia Oliver—who lost their son Joaquin in the Parkland massacre—to star in a video in which they urge people to use the vests. 

“The bottom line is we need to fight against the terrible options of either carrying the weight of the loss of a loved one due to a mass shooting or carrying an extra 20 pounds of protection with you,” Manuel Oliver said in a statement.

The campaign was not only eye-catching, it was effective. With just a $7,000 investment from the agency, the social experiment generated more than 13.3 million media impressions. It also drove more than 12,000 unique visits to thenewlifevest.org, which offered an easy way for people to contact their state representative and ask for changes to laws, including eliminating sales of military-style rifles and enacting a seven-day waiting period for all new gun ownership.