This PSA titled “The Fawn” is from United Sense of America, a bipartisan coalition whose mission is to turn common sense and common ground into public policy.

“The Fawn” was concepted and created by production company SMUGGLER in partnership with New York-based agency American Haiku and Austin-based agency Preacher. Written by American Haiku ECD Thom Glover and directed by the SMUGGLER duo rubberband., the film was designed as a common sense rallying cry aimed at the hunting community, questioning the need for assault weapons–in hunting and beyond that in our society generally. In light of the recent tragic high school shooting in Georgia, this message takes on a poignant urgency and underscores the need to craft progressive reform policy.

The film, painful and seemingly unavoidable, forces the viewer to imagine someone else’s finger on the trigger and something else as its target. A voiceover initially seems to be talking about a fawn who is in plain view. But instead the VO turns out to be referring to the weapon which will claim the animal’s life. While the scene itself is graphic, the messaging is matter of fact. United Sense of America contends there simply is no defensible reason or excuse for assault weapons being necessary for sports hunting–and certainly not in mainstream society which includes our children’s schools.

Glover said, “Every line in the film came from online discussions and conversations. Hunters are no different from the rest of us; the way people buy assault weapons is the same as the way they buy a refrigerator. We have to find a way to challenge this situation that doesn’t paint all gun owners as monsters, because they’re not.”

Credits

Client United Sense of America Agency American Haiku, New York Thom Glover, partner/executive creative director. Agency Preacher, Austin, Texas Seth Gaffney, Rob Baird, Krystle Loyland, partners. Production Company SMUGGLER rubberband., director; Patrick Milling Smith, Sue Yeon Ahn, exec producers; Manny Caston, producer. Voiceover Record, VO Casting, Sound Design and Mix Q Department Cast Bill Kernodle, voiceover actor. Additional Sound Design No.8 George Castle, James Benn VFX The Mill Anastasia von Rahl, managing director; Mariah Gill-Erhart, sr. producer; Matt Fuller, creative director; Jessica Groom, CG lead; Becky Porter, Toya Drechsler, 2D leads; Aryan Sacheva, Bill Lu, Brendon Echsner, Corinne DeOrsay, Dan Bodenstein, Dustin Leon, Gustavo Gonzalez, Ken Jones, Nick Carvalho, Olesya Gurezova, Raul Brossy, Yang Wu, Nilesh Mohan Wadekar, Sparsh Kumar, Rakesh Marathi Pujari, CG; Patrick Reilly, 2D; Jaimie Yoo, Sidney Tan, designers; Yerlan Tanayev, colorist; Daymian Mejia, Alexandra Makarenko, color assists; Jackson Winkler, color producer; Krista Staudt, color exec producer.

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