League Of Legislators
- Brand
- Brady United
- Year
- 2019
- Objective
- Awareness
- Industry
- Other
- Mechanic
- Arcade & Action
- Platform
- Web
- Agency
- Juniper Park\TBWA
Objective
Days after the El Paso and Dayton shootings, Donald Trump blamed video games for gun violence. Brady United, the country's oldest gun-violence prevention organization, teamed up with TBWA\Juniper Park Toronto to flip that argument on its head and redirect public anger toward the real obstacle to reform: a Congress bankrolled by the gun lobby.
Solution
On Brady's Take Action page, a click on the game's thumbnail drops the player into an 8-bit platformer starring their own congressman. Using the arrow keys, they run through a pixelated Capitol Hill, dodging gun-lobby cash and lobbyists as they race toward the House floor. The level takes only a couple of minutes to clear, and finishing it means signing a gun violence prevention bill into law. A win screen then tells the player their part is done and hands them a pre-written tweet, tagged #GunLawsNotGames, to send the game straight to Mitch McConnell and Donald Trump — so Congress can do its part next.
Results
More than 12.5 million media impressions in the first week, and a 23% increase in traffic to Brady's website.
- 1
The player finds the game embedded in Brady's "Take Action" campaign page under the headline "League of Legislators" and starts it by clicking the game's image on the page.
- 2
Surrounding campaign copy sets up the game's argument: no link exists between video games and gun violence, but a documented one exists between NRA lobbying spending and legislators who block gun reform.
- 3
Players control a member of Congress in an 8-bit side-scrolling platformer set in Washington, D.C., moving toward the Capitol building.
- 4
The core mechanic is evasion: gun-industry lobbyists and money/bribes appear along the path, and the player dodges them rather than fighting them.
- 5
The session ends when the player reaches the Capitol and signs a gun-violence-prevention bill, a level that takes only a few minutes to complete.
- 6
A victory screen congratulates the player for "doing your job" and prompts them to pass the game along to an actual member of Congress.
- 7
The campaign page then extends the loop outward, inviting the player to message Senate Majority Leader McConnell and President Trump and to post a pre-written tweet framing the game as proof Congress can act.
