“Hearing about criminal justice reform from someone that’s been labeled a criminal can put the discussion on the back foot,” Shayne Millington, co-chief creative officer at McCann New York, told Adweek. “Hearing about it from a daughter who was forced to grow up without a father forces the realization that everyone close to the person incarcerated is a victim as well.”
The short film urges Biden and governors across the country to free cannabis inmates at a time when the fast-growing legal industry is expected to reach $32 billion in sales this year, per Brightfield Group.
“There’s an element of hypocrisy where people are making a lot of money from a plant for which thousands in the U.S. are currently in prison,” Millington told Adweek. “We felt we could help give those people a voice.”
Using letter writing as a framing device, with Ashmeade narrating the public-service announcement, the docu-style film symbolically passes the pen to Biden and other political leaders to “right an unaddressed wrong.”
The campaign launched this week in the run-up to 4/20, while visibility is strong around all things cannabis, but the message “would have been just as powerful if it came out five months ago,” Millington said.
The video asks the public to reach out to their elected officials, either in writing or by any other means, and pressure them to act. There’s also a dedicated website with more stories and experiences of families, friends and loved ones in parallel situations to the Ashmeades.
“Unlike many issues in this country, this is a very solvable problem with a simple act—one signature,” Millington said. “And we wanted the solution to come from this country’s citizens.”
Executives at the nonprofit Last Prisoner Project, who have been working with McCann for about a year, say the majority of Americans support clemency in these cases.
Freeing those jailed “is not only a moral good that provides those unfairly incarcerated with a second chance and addresses the systemic racism that underpins many of these convictions, but it’s a practical win as well,” Sarah Gersten, executive director and general counsel, said in a statement. “It would reduce overcrowding in prisons and save taxpayer money.”