This new ad, from the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, uses audio clips from the night Trayvon Martin was killed by George Zimmerman to retell — with creative liberty — the story of the night the Florida teen was killed.
The group selected snippets from recordings from the evening of February 26, 2012, including Zimmerman's non-emergency call to the police who tell him not to follow Martin.
Visually, the video features actors playing Zimmerman and Martin. As the camera tilts down Zimmerman's body, we see that he appears to be holding something behind his back.
In fact, Zimmerman reportedly followed Martin in his car, not on foot.
Next, we're taken inside a house representing the house of one of the witnesses who called 911.
Then, we see the Zimmerman actor with a hand up to police, and the Martin actor dead or dying on the ground.
The camera then pans over more dead bodies of young men (all wearing hoodies) with state names next to them, representing states with "Stand Your Ground" laws.
The closing copy lines comes up:
"OUR LAWS SHOULD PROTECT VICTIMS.
NOT CREATE MORE.
STAND UP TO "STAND YOUR GROUND" LAWS
IN 26 STATES."
Lastly the organization's web address comes up (almost too small to read).
It's certainly a powerful and disturbing ad by the Coalition.
It will be criticized for trying to recreate the shooting.
And it will probably also be criticized because the Zimmerman team didn't actually use the "Stand Your Ground" defense during his trial.
Creative Note: the video was produced by Grey NYC's Floyd Russ, the same man who created this superb gun control commercial for States United to Prevent Gun Violence. According to Adweek, the Trayvon Martin ad was a personal project Russ worked on with four Grey staffers.