Pay Attention!

Every once in awhile a piece of marketing comes along that reminds me why I went into this profession in the first place.

It’s been said that marketing can be more influential than than government, and in fact data shows that the millennial generation believes that real change will come from brands and businesses, not from the government. Marketing can be a powerful force in driving change. We’ve seen it many times before, and I hope that we are again seeing it here.

I believe that this piece of advertising proves the point. It has a shocking turn of events, designed to get us to pay attention.

So pay attention:

What an amazing lesson to be learned. Pay attention...to what’s happening around us because maybe, just maybe, we as citizens (and truthfully as businesses) can do something about it.

This piece of film was created by family members of the shooting victims at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut, who formed a nonprofit organization to bring awareness to preventing these kinds of shootings from happening.

The organization says that a vast majority of shooters (and those who commit suicide) gave clues in advance. If only we were paying attention.

“If only.” Perhaps we can get rid of “if only” and start to pay more attention.

Perhaps the power of marketing can help to get us there.