Don't Blow Your Life Away
Metropolitan Police
Issue 5 | July 2008
Agency
Miles Calcraft Briginshaw Duffy, Elvis
Creative Team
MCBD: ;Gavin Torrance and Danny Hunt (TV/radio/ambient);Nick Bird and Lee Smith (cell ambient);Paul Briginshaw and Malcolm Duffy (press);;Elvis (online):;Craig Addy - Art Director;Christoph Clausen - Designer;Jason Garfield - Flash Designer;John Treacy - Creative Director
Production Team
Lorraine Geoghegan - Agency Producer (MCBD);Stink, London - Production Company;Ben Dawkins - Director (Stink, London);Ed Boucher - Senior Programmer (Elvis);Richard Neville - Digital Director (Elvis)
Other Credits
Ben Armistead - Account Director (MCBD);Michael Logan - Account Executive (MCBD);Joelle Granwal - Account Manager (Elvis);Rob Cannon - Campaign Manager (Metropolitan Police Service)
Date
September 2007 - ongoing
Background
Trident was concerned that people are starting to carry guns from an increasingly young age. The aim of this year's campaign therefore was to dissuade 13 to 19-year-olds from turning to gun crime. The insight for the campaign came via in-depth behavioural research, which demonstrated that offenders were less concerned with how their gun crime affected the victim, or the victim's family, than how a prison sentence would impact their own lives. The selfish grim reality of no PlayStation, no shops and no sex was found to be the most compelling deterrent against turning to gun crime.
Idea
Researchers visited prisons and spoke with prisoners to get a real perspective on what they were missing out on most as they served their prison sentences. This campaign was created from conversations with those serving sentences for murder, attempted murder, robbery and possession of a firearm, and challenges young people to think about the things they would miss out on if they ended up in prison after committing a crime with guns. The campaign features TV, radio, and press ads, developed by Miles Calcraft Briginshaw Duffy, that use real prisoners' views to bring the message home: 'Don't blow your life away'.
To support the TV and radio activity, Miles Calcraft Briginshaw Duffy used an array of ambient media including a life-size cell that they transported around the key Trident boroughs and pavement graffiti outlining the size of a real prison cell. Elvis created an online advertising campaign and an updated homepage for www.stoptheguns.org, the official Trident website, to demonstrate what life is like on the inside. The online advertising dramatises the boredom and restriction of living in a police cell. The 3D cell shows the grim reality of where you spend 16 hours a day in prison and the banners depict a man in his cell, bored out of his mind. Both are supported with the lines 'How do you feel about spending the best years of your life in here?' and then 'You could get 5 years in prison for possession of a gun'.
Results
Not yet available.
Target Audience
13 to 19-year-olds
Size
TV on urban music channels; urban and youth press titles; Kiss and Choice radio; ambient media in targeted London boroughs; online advertising featured on the following websites: RWD, playnation.com, myspace.com, monetise, KISS, knowledgemag.co.uk, touch, jumpoff.tv.
Our Thoughts
I believe that ad agency Miles Calcraft Briginshaw Duffy have been brilliantly innovative in helping the Metropolitan Police deal with knife and gun crime. In many ways, direct marketing agency Elvis have a tougher job to do but their banner ads, as part of an integrated campaign, issue the warning clearly and simply. Use a gun and it’s your life that’s at an end.