Mike Becker and I have recently been credited for authoring the longest running advertising campaign in America. "I'm Stuck On Band-Aid Brand." A few months ago Vince Daddiego, Forrest Long, Joan Blaish and myself were similarly credited with creating the longest running public service campaign in America. "A Mind Is A Terrible Thing To Waste." I guess all of that is something to be proud of. But for me, my proudest moment came back in 1988 when Brian McLucas, Robert Crawford and I came up with the seven words that signaled the beginning of the end of one the deadliest wars ever to be waged on American soil. "Nobody Can Stop This War But Us." With those seven words, and the campaign that delivered them across "the Killing Fields" of Watts, the war between the Crips and the Bloods began its four year wind down, ultimately resolving itself in the Watts Gang Truce in 1992. Brian and Robert were not copywriters or art directors. They were hard core gang members who had confronted Jesse Jackson and Cong. Maxine Waters with the truth about the forces that had driven the death toll into the thousands and then tens of thousands in L.A. County in just one short decade. At the time I was working as a consultant for the L.A. City Attorney's Office. That's what put me in the Nickerson Gardens ( America's most violent housing project) for the so-called "Gang Summit" being held as a photo-op for Rev. Jackson's Presidential Publicity Stunt. "You can't buy a Cuban cigar nowhere in America, but I can take you down to Long Beach Blvd. where you can buy as many AK-47's as you can carry, all day long," stated the 23 year-old Bounty Hunter, Blood, triple O.G., Brian "Loaf" McLucas. "And it's for damn sure we don't be growin' no poppies here in Watts," spoke up the 26 year-old Robert "Krofdog" Crawford. The politicians got more than the sound bite they bargained for that afternoon. And so did I, when Brian- the closest thing I'd seen to Attila The Hun, in this Century, or the last- walked up to me and asked if I was there to help, or just sightseeing like the rest of "those jive-ass politicians". Not knowing what to expect, I met his assumptions with as much bravado as I could muster, until he challenged me to return to the Nickersons the next day after the army of LAPD and LA Sherrifs turned the projects over to the real power structure. The Bounty Hunters. For the new Lean Advertising Network White Paper |
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So the next day my client, Tracy Robinson from the City Attorney's Gang Unit and I came back to the Nickerson Garden's Gym at the appointed time and the adventure of a lifetime began. "This could be the breakthrough, we've been waiting for," Tracy confided as we drove through the danger zone of the nation's deadliest zip code. If you care enough to read about what happened from that point on, it was covered in length by the LA Times and you can read the article by clicking here. Today marks the 20 th Anniversary of that fateful meeting. The centerpiece of our campaign to end the war was a stage play entitled "Crossfire." Written by Brian, Robert and myself, performed by 12 members of the Bounty Hunter Bloods, directed by noted Danish film director Annett Wolf, Sr. and videotaped by Fritz Goode, the history of the war was portrayed in chilling terms by those who had survived. Our strategy was deceptively simple. Tell the story. Show the senseless cycle of death that was the result. Circulate thousands of videos to combatants on both sides. Bring the warring factions together to negotiate a cease fire. Stop the killing. The second stage of the campaign, once the two sides came together was to have the members of the two most violent factions, The Bounty Hunter Bloods and the Grape Street Crips, sign a cease fire agreement. The agreement and their signatures were then silk screened on a t-shirt and thousands of the shirts were given away on street corners and in swap meets all across South Central Los Angeles. That was our campaign. It took 8 months and $25,000 to pull off. You can view the video here( at 211mb it will take a while to download. Go have dinner and come back to it) . To everybody's amazement, it worked for almost 20 years. Of course , our sponsor City Attorney James Hahn rode the victory into office as Mayor James Hahn. But the "Crossfire" crew did not share in his success. Annette Wolf returned home to Denmark, shunned by a reactionary Hollywood film community. And now, after almost a twenty year cease fire, the war is back in full force. The recent death toll has already reached the triple digit figures. It seems an entire new generation of young people, spurred on by the media's glamorization of "thug life" and "gangsta chic" are at it again. The vacuum left by the older "Originals" now dead or gone, has left the next in line unchecked and unremorseful. A Holiday Season article in the LA Weekly will bring you up to date, if you care about such things. The comments of the readers are more frightening than the story itself. I promised when I started this column to stay away from political subject matter, but when children are killing children in our streets and the only thing the three Presidential hopefuls can seem to do is throw mud on each other's shoes, there is only one thing I can do. Please join me in a moment of silence for each of America's children. They deserve so much better than the poor excuse for leadership our combined greed and apathy seem to have left as their legacy. The third element of the campaign was a mural painted across the front of the Nickerson Gardens Gym where the story began. Included in the mural were the names of those children from the Nickerson Gardens who had died in this senseless war. Today that list has passed 700.
Stay tuned,
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