America’s Graveyard
March For Our Lives
Schools shouldn’t be warzones.
A spot commissioned by March For Our Lives for the 5-year anniversary of the Parkland school shooting that spurred their founding. The piece was used in part to raise awareness for the nationwide rallies being held on March 24, 2023.
My role:
Writing script and poem
Concepting
Challenge
From the press release:
The writer of America’s Graveyard, Brian Carufe, also wrote the haunting poem that is recited over the video. When asked about the project, Brian said, “As a former teacher, I can’t help but find the widespread complacency really disturbing. There’s a sense of routine to lockdowns now that’s scary in itself. Hopefully the poem, and the PSA as a whole, can stun people out of that complacency by reframing the issue in this military context.”
Creative Insight
It sprang from a statistic: Over the past five years, more American children have been killed in schools than American soldiers have been killed in combat. We fill entire cemeteries with causalities of war. Extending the same imagery to victims of school shootings produces a collective jolt—inspiring heartbreak, outrage, and further motivation to instigate change.
Outcomes
Hundreds of thousands of views and shares across platforms
Thousands of rally attendees mobilized in part by the campaign surrounding this piece on the week of March 24, 2023
Poem
America’s Graveyard
When I close my eyes, I see the field, the one you’re always in
You’re overdressed, my angel, look how casual we’ve been
Our sitting guard, he studies hard how quickly he’s dismissed
If life were only sticks and stones or rubber that would miss
Brush up on your math, brush off all your pain
That’s what your squad would do
You got your gold star sticker and they stuck it to us too
In a row like ducks, sitting
In the face of fear, ducking
Sharpen pencils, sound alarm
Raise your hands, present your arms
Hit the books then hit the floor
You never meant to go to war