In March, MM&M put out a call for creatives to use their talents to convince people to get vaccinated, and to do the same for their children. The call was news-driven, a response to measles outbreaks, including one in New York City. The response was immediate and huge: We received almost 100 entries in a variety of categories from display ads to websites to videos to social media campaigns.

We’re now issuing a call for work to help us fight an even more virulent disease in our midst—gun violence. In the wake of this weekend’s two mass shootings that left 31 dead and scores more wounded, some grievously, MM&M is encouraging agencies and individuals alike to use their persuasive talents to create work designed to help end, once and for all, gun violence.

Few issues are as immediately polarizing as the place of guns in a modern society. But even the most ardent supporters of the Second Amendment have to agree that there’s a difference between owning a firearm for recreation, protection or putting food on the table and shooting up a Walmart on a Saturday morning. The violence needs to stop.

This is why we’re asking our audience to use their skills in this cause. When America has treated previous scourges—deaths caused by cigarette smoking, traffic fatalities—as public health issues, the results were dramatic because people got the message about not smoking and wearing seatbelts. We figure that our community, skilled as it is in communicating about health matters, can apply its talents to a highly-matrixed and emotional hot-button issue so that nobody else will have to grieve a loved one who died from a gunshot wound.

We don’t know exactly what the message or medium will look like. But we’re confident that this community of skilled healthcare communicators is best suited to craft that message, one which will galvanize the public and activate the forces necessary to #InspireTheEnd.

MM&M #InspireTheEnd — Gun Violence submission terms and conditions:

  • Creative must be submitted by Friday, August 30, at 12:00 p.m. ET to Carrie Gavit at [email protected] AND Tracie Palmer at [email protected].
  • All submissions must be newly-created. Assets can include, but are not limited to, a print campaign, digital campaign, display campaign, social media campaign, websites, videos and more.
  • All submissions must be either one JPEG, one public video on YouTube, one Instagram post or one Twitter post. Captions should be included with the submission.
  • Each individual participant may upload only one asset.
  • Selected submissions will be posted on the MM&M site and social media accounts.
  • MM&M reserves the right to disqualify any submission.
  • Entrants are encouraged to post on social with #InspireTheEnd, #GunViolence and with MM&M’s social sites tagged.