The One Show

The One Show is the world's most prestigious award show in advertising and design. For over 50 years, the Gold Pencil has been regarded as one of the top prizes in the creative industry. The One Show has a rich legacy of honoring some of the most groundbreaking ideas, created by some of the most remarkable minds in creativity.

2020 One Show - Film

Back to School Essentials

Agency BBDO / New York + Smuggler / New York

Client Sandy Hook Promise
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Annual ID

OS_FI20_012S

About the Work

In America, almost 15,000 children are killed or injured in gun-related incidents every year. People seem to have accepted this “new normal”, and focus on teaching kids how to survive school shootings, rather than preventing them. To highlight this absurdity, Sandy Hook Promise created a PSA that at first appears to be just another typical, back-to-school ad. But things take a darker turn when it becomes clear that there’s a shooter in the school, and the pupils have to use their new school items to survive. A sock becomes a tourniquet. A girl uses her new phone to text her mom a final message. The PSA ends with the message that the only real back-to-school essential is learning the signs of a shooter, and stopping shootings before they happen. The PSA became a trending topic on Twitter and received 26 million views in the first 24 hours. It was shared by celebrities like Kim Kardashian and Mark Ruffalo, as well as 11 of the 2020 Democratic Presidential candidates. The story was covered by every major news outlet including Fox News, CNN, BBC and the New York Times and generated 3.9 billion media impressions.