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[Edited for fair use]
Politics and Policy: Anticrime Ads Focus on Mothers
September 15, 2003
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Anticrime Ads Focus on Mothers
Creators Hope Family Ties Will Make
Youths Think Twice About Using Guns By SUZANNE VRANICA and BRIAN STEINBERG Concerned that some young people now consider jail a rite of passage, the Justice Department is backing a new advertising campaign that focuses on how long jail sentences affect the mothers left behind. The public-service campaign, to be launched
Monday with help from the Ad Council, is aimed at reducing gun crimes. According
to Justice Department estimates, firearms were used in about 63% of murders in
2001 and two-thirds of gun crimes were committed by repeat offenders.
Instead of focusing on criminals, or their
victims, these commercials talk about mothers. One ad features a montage of
images that flicker from gangsters to a street fight and to guns being drawn. A
voiceover says: "There is a lot of talk out on the street about his mother, your
mother, their mother." The commercial segues to a mother identifying a dead body
and
another mother watching as her son is taken to jail. The voiceover continues: "In the end, is anyone really thinking about them?" The work was created by Interpublic Group's Mullen agency. * * *
That is why Mullen executives initially
questioned whether they could create a campaign that would be effective. "We
were really skeptical as to whether or not advertising could even have any
impact on a subject like this," says Edward Boches, Mullen's chief creative
officer.
Those involved in the project say they knew
from the start that they would have a difficult time getting their message
across at a time when threats of incarceration are having less impact on many
kids. Research conducted by the ad agency found that guns gave young people who
were on their own a sense of status and made them feel safer and more
powerful.
To get the campaign's message right, Mullen
executives traveled to several communities, including Syracuse, N.Y., and Ocala,
Fla., where they went into tough neighborhoods to talk with children and their
families about handguns. Those talks proved pivotal to shaping the
campaign.
"These guys are not going to be deterred by
the threat of prison, or even their own injury," Mr. Boches says. "The one thing
that's in their lives that provided them love and care is a family
member."
The resulting work was shot over several
days in downtown Los Angeles, with several former gang members working in the
cast and one serving as an on-set consultant.
* * *
It isn't clear whether the new campaign will
be effective. The issue, says Allen Adamson, managing director at WPP Group's
Landor, a branding firm, is whether the commercials can build critical mass in
the marketplace. "They'll need focus and a long-term view," he says.
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Professor Joseph Olson Hamline University School of Law tel. (651) 523-2142 St. Paul, Minnesota 55104-1284 fax. (651) 523-2236 <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> |
