Parkland - Dave Cullen Page 0,47

males of various ages. The first three are similar: young boys in backpacks, innocently walking down various streets. The oldest, in the center, Joaquin, is checking his phone, and all three are unaware of the giant gun scopes encircling their bodies, bull’s-eyes over their chests. Then Tío Manny painted a big crimson splotch over each boy’s point of impact. The fourth image was different: no target; a young man facing the other three, crying out in pain. Manny raised the sledgehammer, and drove seventeen bullet holes, one through each of their hearts. we demand 2 stop the bs, he painted around the boys.

He sped up the pace. Every few weeks Tío Manny painted another mural at a strategic moment. All were livestreamed. May 5, the NRA’s annual convention began in Dallas, and Tío Manny painted his mural a block from the convention hall. President Trump and Vice President Pence were both featured speakers, so Tío Manny expanded the scope, and featured Trump dressed as a circus ringleader and Dana Loesch as a clown clutching an AR-15. Joaquin was in the gun sights again. That drew lots of national media.

The murals were left as permanent markers, but the third wall, in Springfield, Massachusetts, was destroyed by vandals after three days. “We don’t actually really care that much,” Tío Manny said. That was part of the message, documenting the resistance, the anger, the attempts to silence Guac’s voice. “Someone destroys your good points just by showing power,” Tío Manny said. “It’s a reflection of what’s going on with the conversation.”

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Change the Ref launched a second big initiative in April, one even more creative. They partnered with the ad agency Area 23 to create a site that would convert Tweets or Facebook posts into letters to congresspeople in Guac’s handwriting. Users could then print them from the site, or let it handle delivery.

The idea was based on the Congressional Management Foundation’s finding that personalized postal letters were the most effective means of influencing congresspersons’ votes. Guac’s handwriting added a special poignancy, for both the sender and receiver. “We are giving a voice to Joaquin,” Tío Manny said. “So he can talk.”

Thousands of Guac letters were submitted to Congress in the first few weeks. David Hogg and Emma González were two of the first correspondents. The project won three awards at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, the most prestigious event in the advertising and marketing worlds.

Through it all, Tío Manny worked closely with the MFOL kids. Same cause, different strategy. “We think it’s more powerful if we do separate things,” Manny said. They coordinated, publicized, and reinforced each other, and they appeared together at key moments. The kids wore Change the Ref buttons and wristbands, making sure they were prominent in their photo shoots—to honor Guac, and to spread the word. Emma began embroidering a great big Change the Ref patch, stitching it onto the bomber jacket she would wear at the March for Our Lives, right across her chest, just above where the podium would rise, so millions of eyes would catch it in every shot. Tío Manny added MFOL logos to many of his murals, and wore a March for Our Lives wristband on his left hand, his painting hand, so that all the close-ups would capture their bond. Each group understood branding and cross-promotion. They wanted to convey how deeply they supported each other—to the public, and to each other.

The kids adored Tío Manny. They even waived the no-adults policy at their meetings for him. Even their parents were forbidden, no exceptions, except for him. “I just got a call from Cameron, asking me to come over today to have some pizzas with them,” he said during an interview. “That’s the kind of relationship we have. Patricia and I feel better by believing that Joaquin is one of them. ‘My kid is right here, fighting along with you guys, making a big noise. . . .’ And Patricia and I feel honored as parents of one of the kids who is leading the movement.”

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Exhausted

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David Hogg was angry. Everyone agreed on that. Media profiles were popping up everywhere on the kids now, almost exclusively on the big three, and journalists had typecast them quickly. Cameron and David were assigned clichés: class clown and angry pugilist. Emma was unique: some sort of tiny, fiery truth god, exposing bullshitters with the intensity of her brown eyes. The Outline ran a big piece headlined “David Hogg Is Mad as Hell,” over a photo