Ad Council, hospitals team up on new gun violence campaign

Even as lawmakers clash on questions of gun rights, many Americans agree on some key solutions that could prevent more deaths from firearms.

That thinking is driving a new effort from the Ad Council and a coalition of hospitals. The Ad Council announced the launch of a new public awareness campaign, “Agree to Agree,” at Northwell Health’s forum on gun violence prevention Thursday.

Michelle Hillman, chief campaign development officer of the Ad Council, talked about the new effort at the forum.

“When it comes to gun violence, Americans actually do agree on far more than we disagree on,” Hillman said.

“We don't have to agree on everything,” she said. “We are never going to. That isn't even the ask. But we all know that when we say, ‘Agree to disagree,’ we are ending a conversation. But what if we can say, ‘Agree to agree?’ Suddenly we started a conversation.”

Hospital leaders at the conference repeatedly focused on gun violence as a public health issue, and not in partisan terms. They pointed out that gun violence remains the leading cause of death of children and teens, according to research from Johns Hopkins.

The Ad Council points to surveys showing consensus in some areas, with 80% of American households with gun owners agreeing that safe storage of firearms would reduce gun violence.

The Children’s Hospital Association and the American Medical Association are both providing financing for the campaign. Several hospitals and health systems, including Northwell Health, Hackensack Meridian Health, Intermountain Health, Johns Hopkins, and Yale New Haven Health, are also supporting the campaign.

At Northwell Health’s gun violence prevention forum last year, several hospitals donated $10 million to the Ad Council to help launch public education efforts. The Ad Council has been working with the National Health Care CEO Council on Gun Violence Prevention and Safety, a coalition of more than 60 health systems.

“This initiative involves multiple campaigns, each designed to impact specific audiences, all to bend the curve on gun violence,” Hillman said.

The Agree to Agree campaign is the first phase of that effort. It features two videos and outreach efforts aimed at two different groups: healthcare providers and parents or caretakers with kids.

In the ad targeting healthcare professionals and leaders, Toluwalasé “Lasé” Ajayi, MD, a professor at UC San Diego Health and an AMA trustee, talks about the questions clinicians can ask parents of kids about guns.

Ajayi stresses the idea of talking and listening to parents who own firearms in order to build trust. She said it’s not about telling parents what to do, but asking questions, such as where firearms are stored and what can be done to keep the child safe. In the video, she said it’s not about judging families but helping guide them to make choices to protect their kids.

“Having this guidance is so important, and it’s so much easier than giving bad news,” she said in the video. “Let’s put ourselves in that position where we can have a conversation with our patients about how they can stay healthy and well.” (Here's the ad.)

In the ad aimed at parents, families are invited to a debate featuring young people sounding off different issues on gun violence. Soon, the kids actually come together to talk about the need to stop blaming others and come together to protect children.

“This is a message to you all to start a conversation right now,” one of the young debaters says.

Michael Dowling, president and CEO of Northwell Health, said the Ad Council campaign is an important mechanism “to promote this concept of a common ground.”

“These are long journeys, and I like to tell people that success on anything takes time,” Dowling said. “It doesn't happen quickly. And this is where having a collective of people that believe, that have resilience, that have compassion, that have caring, is important.”

Rob Allen, president and CEO of Intermountain Health, said preventing firearm injuries is one of his health system’s top priorities. He said the system has focused on gun safety and suicide prevention.

“By raising awareness and offering training and resources, we help to both save lives and remove the stigma around conversations on gun safety and mental health,” Allen said in a statement supporting the campaign. “We, too, have found that there are many people in our communities who agree with our stance on this important work.”