Manuel and Patricia Oliver lost their son, Joaquin, in the Parkland shooting mere months before he was set to graduate. This year, we worked with them to get a divided America to unify around the need for universal background checks and show how this legislation could save the lives of children like their son. The Olivers’ pain of not seeing their child graduate high school is a reality for thousands of families who have lost a child to gun violence. For them, graduation season is a tragic reminder of lost potential.
Firearms are the leading cause of death for children and teens in America. This year alone, 3,044 members of the high school class of 2021 didn’t graduate because they were killed by a gun. To call attention to this, we held a graduation ceremony for this Lost Class, where each empty chair represented a student who should’ve graduated if we had laws like universal background checks. But it wasn’t enough to paint a picture. We had to confront the problem. So, we invited two prominent pro-gun advocates to deliver the The Lost Class’ commencement addresses.
To do this, we created James Madison Academy, a fake online high school named after the author of the Second Amendment. The language and ethos of the school’s website were written to appeal to right-wing sensibilities. We then invited David Keene, former NRA President, and John Lott, author of More Guns, Less Crime, to make the school’s commencement speech. We filmed their speeches during what they believed was a dress rehearsal. But really, they were speaking to The Lost Class of 2021, in effect facing the consequences of careers spent lobbying against common-sense gun legislation. In doing this, these two gun advocates became the unlikely spokesmen for our gun violence PSA. Each film encouraged viewers to sign Change the Ref’s petition to pass universal background checks for gun sales, a petition that now has over 40,000 signatures.
There were three major design challenges we needed to overcome throughout this project. The first involved developing the logo design for The Lost Class. We needed a solution that would communicate a sense of loss while maintaining a collegiate, academic look. To address this, we chose a blackletter type styling and then to knock out "Lost" in the lockup as a way of communicating the empty space left behind by these students.
The second design challenge involved developing the look and feel for James Madison Academy. It needed to feel institutional and exclusive while nodding subtly to the fact that this school represents something much bigger. To connect JMA's identity with that of The Lost Class, we used the same fonts between both designs. We also developed a crest for JMA which includes the motto "Acts non verbal." In Latin, this phrase means "deeds, not words" which points to the fact that we need more than the empty words of politicians to solve America's gun violence epidemic.
The third and final design challenge involved the arrangement of the chairs at the ceremony. We wanted a solution that would instantly communicate the gravity of this loss (which is continued year after year). In developing the ceremony's seating arrangement, we took inspiration from the arrangement of headstones at the Arlington National Cemetery. By aligning our white chairs in perfect rows with no center aisle, we were able to create a sea of seats that looked like a cemetery.
- Agency
- Leo Burnett Chicago
- Global CCO
- Liz Taylor
- CEO
- Andrew Swinand
- EVP, Executive Creative Director
- Sam Shepherd
- VP, Design Director
- Kyle Poff
- Associate Creative Director
- Jason LaFlore
- Associate Creative Director
- Matt Turnier
- Copywriter
- MacKenzie Hart
- Art Director
- Sofia Gahn
- Junior Copywriter
- Kelley Barrett
- Junior Art Director
- Katie DiNardo
- EVP, Head of Production
- Mike Davidson
- SVP, Executive Producer
- Ashley Geisheker
- Associate Producer
- Kaitlin Bucaro
- SVP, Director, Production Operations
- Michael Shanahan
- Production Manager
- Julie Lewandowski
- Account Director
- Amy Walloch
- Head of Planning
- Kaylin Goldstein
- VP, Strategy Director
- Nimisha Jain
- Strategist
- Sean Logan
- Creative Resource Director
- Nancy Parnell
- Associate Creative Resource Director
- Phoebe Alvarez
- Production Company
- Hungry Man
- Director
- Bryan Buckley
- Producer
- Matt Lefebvre
- Producer
- Jordan Cohen
- Executive Producer
- Caleb Dewart
- Executive Producer
- Mino Jarjoura
- Director of Photography
- Scott Henriksen
- Photographer
- Neil Dacosta
- Web Development
- Unicorns & Unicorns
- Executive Producer
- Adrianne McCurrach
- Producer
- Meg Amicucci
- Technical Creative Director
- Sun Komen
- Associate Creative Director
- Ceara Adamson
- Development
- Danny Wirick
- Edit
- No.6
- Editor
- Jason Macdonald
- Editor
- JK Carrington
- Editor
- Ryan Bukowski
- Editor
- Chris VanDyke
- Assistant Editor
- Grace Yang
- Assistant Editor
- Riley Donigan
- Resolve Finisher
- Maxwell Redinger
- Executive Producer
- Corina Dennison
- VFX
- Parliament
- Color Studio
- Primary
- Colorist
- Gregory Reese
- Color Assistants
- Corey Martinez + David Oh
- Producer
- Jenny Bright
- EP
- Thatcher Peterson
- Music, Mix + Sound Design
- Beacon Street
- Music
- Andrew Feltenstein + John Nau
- EP
- Leslie Dilullo
- Mixer
- Rommel Molina
- Producer
- Lindsey Lerman
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