Sandy Hook Promise
Power Your Promise: Purpose-Driven Digital Activism Concept
Title frame: “Power Your Promise” over a green-tinted memorial of candles, flowers and teddy bears.
Despite the abhorrent number of mass shootings that have occurred since Columbine, the NRA continues to oppose ANY legislation that would help keep guns out of the hands of domestic terrorists, criminals, or the mentally ill, devoting millions in contributions to congressional leaders in an effort to halt any action in Congress that could prevent gun sales. And our leaders have been more than happy to accept the money.
Problem frame: a collage of lawmakers’ “thoughts and prayers” tweets sent after mass shootings.
Though education and prevention have been crucial in this fight, and the executive action undertaken by the Obama administration is helping to stem the tide of availability, the true solution to this epidemic continues to reside in the hands of lawmakers who willfully choose to do nothing.
So, how can the average American citizen help change the tide when they feel powerless to do so?
Photo grid: Newtown memorials, angel cutouts and a protest sign reading “Stop Killing Our Children.”
To the troubling realization of millions of Americans, it has seemed that any hope to enact common sense gun laws came to an end when 45 US senators decided that their political campaign contributions were more important than the lives of our nation’s children.
While countless Americans wish they could do more to enact change, apathy has created an environment of “slacktivism” whereby millions feel helpless to do little more than click “like,” post Facebook profile filters, or share their horror, anger, sadness and solidarity on social media.
But what if a simple act on social media could turn near-silent clicks into a voice that speaks louder than anyone could ever imagine?
Using Facebook, “Sandy Hook Promise” will help users steel their resolve by creating a digital engagement that will not only drive donations and share support, but voice that support directly to those in D.C. by means of a national petition and direct correspondence, turning what was once a passive digital act into a revolutionary social movement.
Before and after: a family profile photo gains the green heart-hands Promise filter.
Power Your Promise will drive citizens to SandyHookPromise.org where they will pledge their promise to join the cause, sign a national petition AND download an iconic profile filter to post to their Facebook page.
Facebook rollout: the Power Your Promise post shared on the Sandy Hook Promise page, desktop and mobile.
Every time the filter is employed, an algorithm automatically launches an activism campaign on the user’s behalf: pre-written emails and tweets to every US senator who has blocked common-sense legislation, flooding the inboxes and feeds of the policymakers who refuse to act.
Activation mechanics: tweets, a We the People petition and senator emails headlined “Thoughts and prayers don’t save lives. Actions do.”
Power Your Promise is a digital activism concept created by Husani Barnwell for Sandy Hook Promise. It converts the lowest-effort gesture on the internet, the profile filter, into direct civic pressure: every use of the filter triggers a petition signature and pre-written correspondence to the senators blocking common-sense gun legislation. Purpose work designed to close the gap between caring and acting.
Writer: ACD/Writer Jason Lambert