Before you even start to read, you should hit play on the video above. You do not want to spoil it.
The ad is titled Evan and keeps its secret hidden until the very end. We follow the title character as he writes on a desk in the library and begins a conversation with a secret admirer. This builds and builds until the very end of the school year when Evan signs a friend’s yearbook and it seems that he’s met his secret library pen pal. Then everything changes.
Once you watch it, you are given a crash course on what you missed throughout. Some of the hints are there the first time through, but you’re caught up in the story that the ad puts in front of you. It seems sweet and touching, especially given the time of the year before everything comes crashing to a halt and we realize the signs that went by right in front of us.
That’s the feeling that Sandy Hook Promise wanted to send. The non-profit is led by the family of the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School and they partnered with BBDO New York to create an ad that shows “how different your perspective can be when you’re aware of the signs” according to Ad Week:
“When you don’t know what to look for, or can’t recognize what you are seeing, it can be easy to miss warning signs or dismiss them as unimportant. That can lead to tragic consequences,” says Nicole Hockley, co-founder and managing director of Sandy Hook Promise, who lost her first-grade son Dylan in the Sandy Hook massacre.
“It is important for us to show youth and adults that they are not helpless in protecting their community from gun violence—these acts are preventable when you know the signs. Everyone has the power to intervene and get help. These actions can save lives.”
Once you know the name of the non-profit, things do begin to fall into place a bit. The power of the ad is when you come in fresh and you realize that things aren’t always laid out bare in reality. According to Ad Week, Sandy Hook Promise says that “80 percent of school shooters and 70 percent of individuals who completed suicides” tell someone before it happens, but no one intervenes. They hope this ad can work towards changing that.
(Via Ad Week)