More than 60,000 teddy bears were sent to Newtown, CT after the Sandy Hook tragedy in 2012. Thousands of more teddy bears have been placed into memorials for school shootings since. The latest PSA from Sandy Hook Promise centers on a teddy bear, a well-known symbol of childhood that has come to mean something very different.  

Titled “A Teddy Bear’s Dream” the PSA depicts a teddy bear in a toy store dreaming about a life with a little girl who becomes their best friend. But, instead of this happy future together, the little girl buys the bear for a school shooting shrine, in memory of the victims.  By flipping a familiar and innocent childhood memento into an unexpected but brutally true and tragic reality, the campaign reminds us all that we need to help kids be kids again.