SpikeDDB launched “End Gun Violence,” a new PSA campaign for Everytown for Gun Safety with a 30-second spot featuring NBA stars.
Directed by Spike Lee, the ad is set to Andra Day‘s “Rise Up” and features appearance from Stephen Curry, Carmello Anthony, Joakim Noah and Chris Paul. It opens on Curry talking about hearing of a shooting involving a three-year old girl, which he points out is the same age as his daughter. He’s soon joined by the other NBA stars, as well as the mother of a gun violence victim who point out that 88 people die of gun violence in the U.S. every day and directing them to the Everytown for Gun Safety website and to use the #EndGunViolence hashtag. The first in a series of gun violence PSAs to be directed by Lee, the spot will air during NBA games on Christmas Day.
“The beginning of Chi-Raq starts with this flashing card that says, ‘This is an emergency, this is an emergency,'” Lee told Sports Illustrated. “That applies to the United States of America, too. We have to do something as a country to stop this madness, this carnage, this devastation of families who never become whole again because their loved ones were shot down by suicide, by accident or by murder.”
“You have so many kids looking up to (NBA players),” added Pamela Wright, who lost her son to gun violence at the age of seventeen. “If they see where they’re saying this gun violence is causing issues, I think the kids, with them being their role models, might look at the gun violence different, too. It should stop. My life matters, too.”