U.S. Attorney McGregor Scott Unveils New Valley Crime Stoppers Anti-Gang Campaign at IMAX Theater in Fresno, Calif.
ASTONE Will Provide to Crime Stoppers Organizations Nationwide
FRESNO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--“Gangs Want Your Kids.” It’s a powerful sentiment; one that U.S. Attorney McGregor Scott, in partnership with Valley Crime Stoppers, the Fresno Police Department and ASTONE, hopes will be a wake-up call for the families of gang members.
The new statewide campaign is aimed at helping to eliminate the gang problem crippling our communities. The “Guns and Gangs” campaign includes billboards, bus signs, a thirty-second television spot and sixty-second radio spot. The television spot was created and produced at no cost by ASTONE, a fully integrated strategic marketing and communications firm with offices in Fresno, San Francisco, Sacramento and San Diego. In hopes the message will infiltrate all communities, ASTONE will contribute the public service announcement to any Crime Stoppers organization nationwide.
“There is a huge need for an outreach campaign targeted exclusively to help eliminate the gang problems in every community,” said Mark Astone, CEO and president of ASTONE. “We saw this as the perfect way to offer our resources and skills to help make a difference in a problem that affects everyone. The challenge was to take a hard-hitting approach and balance it with an emotional tie-in. Our team came up with an incredible message that we believe will resonate and most importantly spur action.”
After thorough research, it was decided the target audience would be the group that gang members hold most near and dear—the women in their lives, most specifically the mothers.
U.S. Attorney McGregor Scott, who has been intimately involved with the campaign through Project Safe Neighborhoods, feels this approach will really hit home.
“We see this campaign as a turning point for our communities that will set a new level of awareness of how people—especially these family members—can help law enforcement identify gang members and crimes that have been committed,” said U.S. Attorney Scott. “We want to reach out and make sure these mothers know that by reporting those who are in gangs or associated with gangs, they are helping to not only turn that child’s life around, they could also be saving their life.”
U.S. Attorney Scott is referring to the Valley Crime Stoppers hotline number and web site that is used to report gang members or others associated with crime. As other Crime Stoppers organizations adopt the campaign, the contact information will reflect the corresponding area.
Chief Jerry Dyer of the Fresno Police Department is no stranger to gangs in Fresno and the surrounding communities, and welcomes this campaign as a much-needed supplement to the fight that he and law enforcement in neighboring areas battle daily.
“Time and time again, police officers see families torn apart by gangs,” said Fresno Police Chief Dyer. “Life in gangs usually leads to a lifetime in and out of prison or a life cut short through violence. It is our hope that this public service announcement will send a clear message and serve as a wake-up call that the only way to survive gang violence is to get out of gangs.”
ASTONE spent more than 800 hours assembling this campaign. The television spot was created with additional support from Beer Monuments, John Kelly Films, Lee Utterbach Camera’s Inc., Marin Monument Co., Mountain View Cemetery and Spy Post.
To obtain a copy, please contact Marissa Welch at ASTONE at 559.375.7100 #161 or MWelch@astoneagency.com.