Brutal PSA aimed at hunting community calls for ‘common sense’ action on guns

American Haiku and Preacher team up with Smuggler and director duo Rubberband on new campaign

Published On
Sep 10, 2024

Editor's Pick

Warning: The video above contains violent imagery and may be upsetting to some viewers.

Another school shooting, another PSA calling for sensible gun laws.

The video above, however, differs from the standard playbook in a few respects—first, in its simple and brutal vision, and second, in targeting an audience of hunters who might actually have some sway in pushing forward some sort of legislative action on guns.

The film was created for advocacy group United Sense of America by Smuggler and American Haiku and written by the latter’s executive creative director, Thom Glover. It was directed by the duo rubberband. Austin agency Preacher is handling some strategy work on the campaign. The message is as resonant as ever following the recent events in Georgia.

Also read—Gun violence ads reference Trump shooting: ‘Not everyone is that lucky’

Many gun violence campaigns preach to the choir and thus fail to make an impact. There are exceptions, such as last year’s “Aim for Change” campaign, which also targeted gun owners.

“Weapons of war are designed for a battlefield, not our children’s schools,” United Sense of America said in a statement.

“The people who are going to make the difference in legislation are hunters who think of themselves pretty moderate, common sense people,” Patrick Milling-Smith, founder of Smuggler, told Ad Age in an interview. “If we make everybody who owns a gun feel like a piece of shit, then they’re just not going to give an inch on anything.”

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Credits

Date
Sep 10, 2024
Client :
United Sense of America
Agency :
American Haiku
ECD & Partner :
Thom Glover
Agency :
Preacher
Partner :
Seth Gaffney
Partner :
Rob Baird
Partner :
Krystle Loyland
Director :
rubberband.
Production Company :
SMUGGLER
Executive Producer :
Patrick Milling Smith
Executive Producer :
Sue Yeon Ahn
Producer :
Manny Caston
Voice Over :
Bill Kernodle
Voiceover Record Studio :
Q Dept
Sound Design :
No. 8
Sound Design :
George Castle
Sound Design :
James Benn
VFX :
The Mill
Managing Director :
Anastasia von Rohl
Sr. Producer :
Mariah Gill-Erhart
Creative Director :
Matt Fuller
CG Lead :
Jessica Groom
2D Lead :
Becky Porter
2D Lead :
Toya Drechsler
CG :
Aryan Sacheva
CG :
Bill Lu
CG :
Brendon Echsner
CG :
Corinne DeOrsay
CG :
Dan Bodenstein
CG :
Dustin Leon
CG :
Gustavo Gonzalez
CG :
Ken Jones
CG :
Nick Carvalho
CG :
Olesya Gurezova
CG :
Raul Brossy
CG :
Yang Wu
CG :
Nilesh Mohan Wadekar
CG :
Sparsh Kumar
CG :
Rakesh Marathi Pujari
2D :
Patrick Reillly
Designer :
Jaimie Yoo
Designer :
Sidney Tan
Colorist :
Yerlan Tanayev
Color Assist :
Daymian Mejia
Color Assist :
Alexandra Makarenko
Color Producer :
Jackson Winkler
Color EP :
Krista Staudt

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Industry
Project Type