The problem of shoot-out among teenagers in schools and universities abroad will not go away until people learn to be more attentive. Promotional video of the agency BBDO New York talks about it, showing what signs point to a potential shooters and how to prevent the tragedy.

A few months ago, a nonprofit organization of Connecticut Sandy Hook Promise, which was founded after the mass shooting of primary school pupils in 2012 in Newton, published very ordinary movie about the love of two schoolchildren, which had a terrible secret and profound meaning.

At the beginning of the social advertising, we meet Evan, a high school student, who cannot wait for the summer holidays. The guy gets bored so much so that he begins to write the words on the table in the school library. The next day he discovers that his notes are answered. So, fascinating communication began between the young man and a lady. Perhaps, it was too exciting…

Pen amour ends when the library is closed for the summer holidays. Who is the stranger who communicated with Evan? How will their love story end? Most likely, these are not the questions, the answers to which you will be interested in after watching the video itself.

We tell those who have not found two minutes to watch the video, that after the closure of the library Evan met a girl in the lobby, for whom he signed an annual album, and her friend realized from his handwriting that he is the stranger from the library. But then suddenly a guy with a gun burst into the hall and began shooting.

Thereon the advertisement comes to an end. Then it follows with a message from the authors of the video:

Then the record is being unwound and we can see moments, which show the very shooter in the background. And it becomes clear how many things were actually overlooked when watching the video. Moral of the story is that if people saw the full picture, they would be able to recognize the impending tragedy and a potential malefactor.

As for the feedbacks, within three days a video that is a part of the Know the Signs campaign was watched nearly 2.5 million times. The video received a huge number of comments on social networks from US users.

However, not all the comments were positive. Some users have noticed that the reasons that prompted a young man to arrange shooting are unrealistic. Authors of social advertising told them that «the point was not what the other guy was doing, but that no one paid attention on him».

Chief Creative Director of an advertising agency BBDO New York, which created this video for Sandy Hook Promise, Greg Hahn said that by means of the video «Evan» they tried to show the extent to which the perspectives of events development are different, when you know about the signs that indicate that something is obviously wrong.

The founder and managing director of Sandy Hook Promise Nicole Hockley argues that when people do not know what they should look for, or are not aware of what they see, they can easily lose sight of the warning signs and evaluate them as irrelevant. This leads to tragic consequences. By the way, Nicole’s son also tragically died.

Social advertising by all means tries to show young people and adults that they are not helpless in protecting themselves and others against abuse. Shooting and attacks will be able to be prevented when people learn to recognize the warning signs. Everyone has the right to step in and help, because these actions really can save lives.