• by Les Luchter , July 21, 2025

A new spot from Northwell, the New York Metro healthcare system, shows images of kids with assorted injuries as a voiceover assures viewers that “We can treat bumps, bruises, and breaks, fevers, fractures, and falls. We can treat minor sprains, chest pains, even smart little brains.”

Then, as a child starts opening an unlocked bureau drawer,  a graphic reads, “Guns are the #1 killer of kids,” and the VO continues, “We can all agree there's one thing we shouldn't have to treat. Kids are safe when a gun is locked in one.”

“Things We Can Treat,” the latest gun violence campaign in partnership with Northwell’s creative agency of record StrawberryFrog, launches today some three years after their initial “Doesn’t Kill to Ask” effort helped reframe gun violence as a kids’ public health menace. That campaign, which equated unlocked guns with a  ferocious, unleashed tiger,  led to increases in the number of people likely to ask about unlocked guns as well as higher brand consideration for Northwell.

The new local Northwell campaign follows on the heels of the healthcare system’s leading role in the Ad Council’s recently launched $40 million national “Agree to Agree” campaign, which seeks to depoliticize the gun violence issue.

“Things We Can Treat” also takes an apolitical approach.

“So how do we talk about guns without it getting instantly political?” asks StrawberryFrog’s Chief Creative Officer Nick Sonderup in a statement. “By using a powerful misdirect that makes parents think we’re talking about one thing - the common, everyday care kids need for bumps, bruises and scrapes - when we’re really talking about the one thing we shouldn’t have to treat...gunshot injuries.

“Because if a gun is in the house, kids will find it,” Sonderup explains, “the same way you know a kid will fall on a bike or skateboard. But they can get back up from those.”

Targeting 25+ adults to reach gun owners and parents across the New York DMA, the new spot (in :30, :15 and :06 lengths) is running across all dayparts on linear TV, as well as online video and social, with outlets including Peacock.

Set  to run at least through year’s end, the campaign also includes radio, out-of-home and print, (e.g., The New York Times, Newsday, Crain’s New York Business, Jewish Voice).  HMI is the media agency.