The Lost Class
Change the Ref2021
The Lost Class is a 2021 live stunt (staged graduation) and films for Change the Ref, created by Leo Burnett Chicago.
Why it works
A graduation with no graduates. In June 2021, David Keene, a former president of the National Rifle Association, believed he was rehearsing a commencement speech for John Madison Academy, a high school in Las Vegas; gun-rights activist John Lott was duped the same way. In front of them stood 3,044 empty chairs, one for each student who should have graduated that year but had been killed by a gun. The school did not exist. It was created by Change the Ref — the organisation founded by Manuel and Patricia Oliver after their son Joaquin was killed in the 2018 Parkland school shooting — with Leo Burnett Chicago, and the speeches became films that drew attention worldwide. The work won two D&AD Black Pencils and the ADC's Black Cube for best in show in 2022. It is studied as activism by ambush, turning opponents' own words into the message — and, because it depended on deceiving its speakers, as a live debate about where provocation ends.
Techniques
- Shock and provocation Tricks gun-rights figures into rehearsing a commencement speech for a school that does not exist, turning their own words into the message.
- Pathos Stages a graduation before thousands of empty chairs, one for each student killed by a gun who should have graduated that year.
- Purpose and cause Serves a gun-violence campaign founded by parents who lost their son in a school shooting, forcing the debate into worldwide attention.
Sources · 4
Updated
