Why I Went to Cannes to Talk About Guns

The same strategies that sold milk are what’s needed to promote gun safety

Each June, top minds from around the world in advertising and marketing gather in the south of France to connect, learn from each other, and celebrate the latest innovations shaping the industry.

Campaigns highlighted at Cannes transcend mere commercialism to become ingrained in the cultural fabric. The most successful ones not only sell products; they galvanize actions that become behaviors, which then — if truly successful — create cultural change. “Got Milk?” was a staple of the 90s and 2000s. “Just Do It” from Nike. “Think Different” from Apple. These advertising campaigns raised brand awareness and fundamentally altered consumer behavior and even public interest.

That’s why I was there. Not only to learn from some of the world’s best creative minds, but to discuss Brady’s hugely impactful secure firearm storage program, End Family Fire. Many of the world’s best marketers have played a critical role in helping shape this media effort to reduce America’s gun violence crisis, from assisting with research, focus group testing, ad creation, and delivery. Thanks to the generosity of many pro bono partners and the Ad Council, End Family Fire PSAs — which includes videos, billboards, radio ads, and more — have reached gun owners across all 50 states and been viewed more than 3.6 billion times. Gun owners who see the ads are 4x more likely to make changes to store their guns safely.

We launched End Family Fire and gave it a name for one reason: to save lives. In America, we have more guns than people, and guns are the number one killer of our kids. Loaded and unsecured firearms in the home are responsible for the deaths or injuries of eight kids a day. Almost 80% of school shooters obtain their firearm from a home where it is not safely stored. Access to a gun triples the risk of death by suicide. Secure storage is the most impactful way we can prevent each of those tragedies and save a huge number of lives from preventable gun violence. Certainly, we need laws and policies that promote safe storage, but the way to reach Americans' hearts and minds around secure storage is in living rooms, newsfeeds, and through ad campaigns.

The gun industry has spent decades and tens of millions of dollars shaping how Americans think about firearms. In just the past three years, Smith & Wesson alone has spent over $46 million on marketing and advertising. That kind of investment creates powerful narratives, many of which glamorize gun ownership while ignoring the risks. It is no surprise that these messages have taken hold. If we want to counter that influence and save lives, we need to match that cultural force with one of our own. That is why we are investing in creative campaigns that speak directly to the American public and shift the conversation toward responsibility and safety.

That starts with Ending Family Fire, and expanding who sees that message across the country. I went to Cannes so that Brady can work with the world’s leading brands, creatives, and distribution networks to ensure every household in America hears the message of why secure storage is so important. Every public health epidemic taking American lives, from smoking to seatbelt usage, has only been meaningfully addressed by getting the advertising industry fully engaged. The ultimate goal is for “family fire” to become a cultural touchpoint in the same way the terms "designated driver” and "secondhand smoke” did.

And we are adding new workstreams to change American hearts and minds. Several years ago, Brady launched our Show Gun Safety campaign. Working with some of the most influential talent in Hollywood, from major studios to writers rooms and showrunners, we have changed the ways that guns are shown in film and TV. From SWAT to Station 19, about 150+ million viewers have watched content incorporating our best practices on firearm portrayals, including safe storage. And we’re only just getting started.

An End Family Fire billboard in St. Paul, MN. See the full suite of PSAs here.

Two years ago, after seeing how effective advertising and culture could be in changing hearts and minds, I made the decision to attend Cannes. This first trip yielded a new partnership with McCann New York, one of the most respected creative agencies in the world. I was blown away by how quickly their CEO, Amber Guild, jumped at the opportunity to build a cultural movement, not just a message. We knew immediately that if we want to save lives, we need a massive, coordinated creative effort. One that weaves together the success of past major marketing campaigns (like marriage equality) with what we, at Brady, have already learned from doing this work for over 50 years.

We can and we must reimagine an America where gun safety is a top priority and where lives are saved. It will take a powerful, dynamic focus on reframing guns in our culture as objects that may provide protection but also carry big risks. That’s why we’re working with McCann to build a powerful new campaign that will connect with both gun owners and non-gun owners. We’re designing it to be open-source, so that any organization working to prevent gun violence can use the same clear, effective messaging. Unified messaging is key to pushing back against decades of misinformation and distortions from the gun lobby and help make responsible gun ownership the norm.

Our hope is that we can make it second nature for parents to ask about guns in the home before a playdate. That gun owners automatically lock up firearms, just like they would buckle their seatbelts. That, as a country, we understand that freedom to own a gun must come with the responsibility to store it securely.

This most recent trip only strengthened my belief that we’re on the right path. The conversations I had there made one thing clear: The creative industry is full of people who want to use their talent and platforms to help solve real-world problems. And they see gun safety as one of them. When I shared what Brady has been building with McCann and how it connects to their cultural expertise, the energy in the room shifted. People leaned in and came up to me afterward and asked how they could get involved.

We face substantial headwinds at the federal level. But progress can still be made in very important areas fundamental to preventing gun violence and saving lives. We have the data, the message, and now, a growing creative support to change the conversations around guns in America. If you’re reading this and want to help — whether you work in advertising, public health, tech, or are simply someone who cares — there is a place for you in this movement. Reach out, share this post, and talk about it with your network. This work is just beginning, and we need everyone at the table.