We are in the midst of a devastating gun violence crisis in America. For the fourth year in a row, gun injuries are the leading cause of death for children and teens (ages 1 – 17). Yet awareness of this reality remains alarmingly low: according to a 2024 study from the Ad Council Research Institute, while 79% of adults identified gun violence as one of their top concerns, only 26% recognized that gun injuries are the leading cause of death for kids. The campaign’s task: create a unifying strategic platform to elevate the issue by reframing gun violence as an urgent health crisis impacting children and teens and empowering audiences to take individual actions that can reduce gun violence.
Grounded in the understanding that there's a lot we already agree on, especially with children at the center of this crisis, the campaign dismantles the idea that conversations about guns inevitably lead to conflict. It focuses on the common ground we DO have regarding gun violence and protecting America’s youth. The phrase “agree to disagree” may end a conversation, but Agree to Agree starts one.
This collective effort offers multiple pathways for engagement through a series of integrated campaigns including Parents++, reaching individuals with children in their inner orbit; Health Care Professionals (HCPs), targeting those caring for children and families in preventative settings; and Community Violence Intervention (CVI), an effort launching soon that aims to build support for CVI by championing those working to break cycles of violence and save lives.
Our challenge: Deep ideological fault lines around guns make the topic particularly sensitive and contentious. Many feel it’s difficult to have constructive conversations without getting into heated debates over politics, values, and/or sensitive personal experiences. So, they avoid the conversation. The fear of being misunderstood and the lack of personal experience are major obstacles that lead to siloed conversations and heightened skepticism of others’ views. Many parents especially feel unprepared to have conversations about gun violence and gun safety.
This vacuum of constructive communication leads to a perception that we can’t find common ground and viable solutions, but people have more in common than they realize when it comes to the topic of youth firearm injury and death. Importantly, there is broad agreement that everyone has a role to play in solving the issue, individual actions can make an impact, and there is shared optimism around the importance of having productive conversations. In fact, 82% of Americans agree that having more productive conversations can help reduce gun injury and death among children and teens (Ad Council | Bully Pulpit International Survey, 2024). Across demographics, geography, and political affiliations, there are shared beliefs. From parents, gun owners, non-gun owners, gun violence survivors, and more, we agree on more than we think.
With this foundation, we created Agree to Agree - a multi-year effort to remind parents, caregivers, health care professionals, and those with kids in their inner orbit that this issue is solvable, and that having productive conversations is the first step in protecting children and teens. We launched the campaign with a powerful video PSA, “No Debate Debate”, which features real students and their parents—not actors—attending what they think is a student debate about gun violence. It quickly becomes clear that gun violence is not a divisive two-sided debate, and the students confront the audience about the sobering reality of gun injuries impacting kids. Creative directs audiences to AgreeToAgree.org, where people can access resources, including conversation guides, strategies and tips from trusted experts, and additional materials that aim to educate audiences to take individual steps to help prevent gun violence and keep children and teens safe. We have continued to address this massive and nuanced issue from multiple vantage points since the campaign’s launch in February 2025, expanding the platform to include additional health care professional content (video series, PSAs, and a robust resource hub at AgreeToAgree.org/Healthcare) and news and journalism content that further raises awareness of this critical issue and its impact on youth.
Just a year from launch, Agree to Agree has reached audiences at scale with this critical message, driven meaningful engagement, and contributed to individual actions taken across core objectives. The campaign has garnered over $31M in donated media support and generated more than 2B impressions across donated, paid, earned and owned channels (February-November 2025). We’ve driven over 600k visits to AgreeToAgree.org, with nearly 13,000 clicks on resource or conversation guides, materials that provide immediate support and encourage individuals to have important conversations about youth firearm injury prevention.
Most importantly, 67% of PSA-aware respondents reported having a conversation in the past year about preventing gun injury and death that affects children and teens compared to 49% of those not PSA-aware, indicating that the campaign is contributing to real-world impact. (Source: Ad Council | C+R Research Online Tracking Survey of U.S. adults who report relationship to child under age 18, aggregated data from surveys fielded May & August 2025, (n=800)).
Together, these results demonstrate how Agree to Agree has strategically and successfully addressed this national crisis through a multi-channel, engaging campaign that continues to remind audiences that individual actions can help reduce gun injury and death among children and teens.
