Anti-handgun campaign targets matriarchs of crime families
A campaign on behalf of Crime Stoppers aims to persuade family matriarchs to anonymously tip-off the authorities about illegal handguns.
The 30 second ad, running online with the possibility of running on television if funding can be found, has been created by Sydney production company True Pictures and ad agency First Light.
The ad features a mother making breakfast at home when she looks up to see her son on the news, having been shot by a mate.
The anti-gun campaign is called Operation Unification, and is backed by Crime Stoppers, NSW Police and the Federal Government.
First Light owner Peter Price, who is also chairman of the board for NSW Crime Stoppers and vice president of Crime Stoppers internationally, created the campaign pro-bono, and said the premise of the ad was to reflect real life situations.
“The strategy was to appeal to the matriarch of the family on the basis that if they know that their male counterparts – brothers, sons, nephews, husbands, fathers – have an illegal handgun they can call Crime Stoppers and have it confiscated without any fear of retribution.
“Here’s a situation where a mother is going about her business making breakfast on a normal day and she knows her son is up to no good then she look up and sees her son on the news, on the ground, under a tarpaulin.”
“This is all about trying to show the truth of it; not what might happen but what is happening.”
The campaign encourages the public to report illegal handguns to Crime Stoppers over the phone or online.
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If ants are allowed to carry handguns, I fear for my life…
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Great. Finally something about this. There’s not a day goes by in Sydney lately where there’s not some sort of handgun crime. Yesterday, a guy shot in Mascot at footy training, the day before a 12 year old robbed at gunpoint in south-west Sydney! Ban the freakin’ things with $50,000 fines and a year in prison. There is no reason ANYONE needs a handgun.
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Good strategy, good execution. Well done to whoever did it.
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Nice campaign with an important message, I just hope that it’s not let down by the funding questions. I’ll admit that I don’t have the appropriate numbers to hand but I doubt that online is the best channel for reaching crime family matriarchs. I’d be very interested to learn what is though.
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Nice insight-driven alternative to targeting perpetrators directly. Can’t forget Jackie Weaver’s emotionally powerful matriarchal hold over her boys in Animal Kingdom. Hope this gets some serious bucks to run in prime time/family time TV.
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Brilliant, great way of delivering the message.
FTA Daytime TV would be the perfect slot for this though.
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The police are pretty slack or just not really that great at investigating.
In just about 30 mins the other day I found pics of 2 people on the net in Australia holding guns which would be illegal for them to possess, including what looks like a sawn-off shot-gun.
Only people with nasty intentions need sawn off shotguns.
A lot of crims are just not very bright, especially violent ones – some of them boast about having guns.
One not particularly bright young man was in a pic with a balaclava pointing a pistol at the camera, but you could see he had a sore eye (it was all red and puffy).
This rocket scientist’s friend put a comment on the page asking the guy with the gun (and using the gunman’s name) what happened to his eye
The dumb gunman replied, saying he had it hurt it somehow, thus admitting the pic is of him holding the gun.
These dumb crims need to know that there is no point covering your face in a picture of you holding a gun, if you are going to give your identity anyway.
And that picture and admission he made, should be enough to allow the police to get a search warrant.
I disclosed this info to CrimeStoppers – hopefully he will be arrested soon, if he still has the gun on him.
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yep.. Sanyo CRT TV it’s 2013 dudes…
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Sean, the kitchen TV in a household probably won’t be the latest 4K out of Korea.
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