The Lost Class campaign by Change the Ref

The Lost Class – A graduation ceremony for the students who didn’t make it to graduation because of a gun

Firearms are the leading cause of death for children and teens in America. This year alone, 3,044 members of the high school class of 2021 didn’t graduate because a gun killed them. To call attention to this, Change the Ref held a graduation ceremony for The Lost Class and invited two prominent pro-gun advocates to deliver the commencement addresses. To do this, they created James Madison Academy, a fake online high school named after the author of the Second Amendment. They invited David Keene, former NRA President, and John Lott, author of More Guns, Less Crime, to make the school’s commencement speech. They filmed their speeches during what they believed was a dress rehearsal. But really, they were speaking to The Lost Class of 2021 – those students who couldn’t graduate this year because a gun killed them. In doing this, these two gun advocates became the unlikely spokesmen for our anti-gun violence campaign. The impact of the speeches went beyond the ceremony and into the news cycle, being covered by countless national and international media outlets.

Credits
Campaign: The Lost Class
Client: Change The Ref, USA.
Co-Founder: Manuel Oliver, Patricia Oliver.
Advertising Agency: Leo Burnett, Chicago.
Production Company: Hungry Man, Los Angeles.
Illustrator: Sean Hannaway.
Design Director: Kyle Poff.
Associate Creative Director: Jason  LaFlore , Matt Turnier , Ceara Adamson.
Copywriter: MacKenzie  Hart.
Art Director: Sofia Gahn .
Junior Copywriter: Kelley Barrett .
Junior Art Director: Katie DiNardo .
Head of Production: Mike Davidson .
Executive Producer: Ashley  Geisheker , Caleb Dewart, Mino Jarjoura, Adrianne  McCurrach , Corina Dennison, Thatcher Peterson , Leslie Dilullo, Ceara Adamson.
Associate Film Producer: Kaitlin Bucaro .
Operations Director: Michael Shanahan .
Production Manager: Julie Lewandowski .
Account Director: Amy Walloch .
Head of Planning: Kaylin Goldstein .
Strategy Director: Nimisha Jain .
Resource Manager: Nancy Parnell , Phoebe Alvarez .
Strategist: Sean Logan.
Director: Bryan Buckley.
Producer: Matt Lefebvre, Jordan Cohen, Meg Amicucci, Jenny Bright , Lindsey Lerman , Thatcher Peterson .
Director of Photography: Scott Henriksen.
Photographer: Neil Dacosta.
Technical Director: Sun Komen.
Developer: Danny Wirick.
Editor: Jason Macdonald, JK Carrington, Ryan Bukowski, Chris VanDyke, Maxwell Redinger.
Assistant Editor: Grace Yang, Riley Donigan.
Founder: Phil Crowe.
Colourist: Gregory Reese .
Art Assistant: Corey Martinez, David Oh.
Music Producer: Andrew Feltenstein , John Nau.
Sound Mixer: Rommel Molina .
Head of Communications: Jackie  Zupsic.
Senior Vice President: Baxter Townsend.
Account Supervisor: Adam Skaf, Ashley  Geisheker .
Vice President: Kappie Kopp.
PR Agency: Tusk Strategies.
PR Account Supervisor: Adam Skaf.
Project Manager: Julie Lewandowski .
Music: Ludovico Einaudi, Daniel Hope – “Experience” (I Virtuosi Italiani, In A Time Lapse 2013, provided to YouTube by Universal Music Group).