ACLU

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In 1999 Amadou Diallo was gunned down by the NYPD. In an unfortunate case of mistaken identity, four plain-clothed police officers fired 41 bullets in under 8 seconds killing an innocent man who was merely reaching for his wallet.

Mr Diallo was a 23 year old immigrant from Guinea, who was unarmed at the time of the shooting. A firestorm of controversy erupted subsequent to the event as the circumstances of the shooting prompted outrage all across the nation.

I was an art director working at Devito/Verdi at the time and we had the American Civil Liberties Union as a client. The ACLU had bought a full-page newspaper ad on one of the back-pages of the New York Times. They requested a hard-hitting ad that focused on the issues of police brutality, racial profiling, and the contagious shooting that were rampant that time in the Street Crimes Unit of the New York Police Department.

We presented the ad you see here, and the ACLU had the courage to run it.

 
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ny post | aclu bullet
adweek | aclu bullet
ny times | aclu bullet

The ad ran and became an instant news story; the NYPD was protesting both the ACLU and Devito/Verdi, and it’s powerful imagery and messaging rallied the city.

This newspaper ad that ran only one time helped shine a spotlight on the issue and the corrupt Street Crimes Unit was eventually disbanded in April 2002.