If you carry a concealed weapon, you?re going to jail.
That?s the new message that Maryland EXILE and GKV Communications have teamed up to pass on to Baltimore?s criminals.
“We needed to communicate to these criminals that if they carry a gun, they will face a criminal sentence,” said U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein.
Maryland EXILE is a comprehensive strategy that combines local, state and federal law enforcement efforts in order to combat gun crime in Baltimore. “What we found is that criminals aren?t really afraid of the justice system because even though they have been arrested, charges have been dropped or they have only served brief periods of time,” Rosenstein said. “They don?t have enough fear of the system. We want to make them aware that if they get caught carrying a gun, they are going away for a very long period of time.”
The campaign, consisting of a TV spot, will air in Baltimore on WMAR, WBAL and WJZ for the next four weeks. In the commercial, a young man reaches for a gun before going out. As he touches the weapon, he finds himself in a jail cell. Actor Andre Braugher, of “Homicide” fame, performs a voice-over that states the names and sentences of three Baltimore criminals who are serving lengthy federal time for carrying a weapon.
“When we first got the assignment, we studied the program to see how it worked and what was different about it,” said Dave Broscious, associate creative director at GKV. “We wanted to be very clear about how EXILE works and get the message right to the guys who were carrying these guns.”
Rosenstein hopes that the campaign will encourage private organizations to raise money to run their own advertisements supporting the program.
“Even though we spend most of our time prosecuting criminals, our main goal is to prevent crime, not just to prosecute it,” Rosenstein said. “We needed to put a lot of thought into prevention.”
“We?re not trying to turn these guys into angels; we?re just trying to tell them that that if they pick up that gun, there?s a really good chance that they will go to federal prison,” Broscious said.
Contact the Agency
» GKV Communications
» 1030 Hull St., Suite 400, Baltimore
» 410-234-2519; www.gkv.com
