Sandy Hook Promise Wins 'Outstanding Commercial of 2021' Emmy Award

NEWTOWN, CT — Sandy Hook Promise won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Commercial of 2021 on Saturday for its public service announcement, "Teenage Dream."

The award was presented at a live event ahead of the 74th Annual Emmy Awards telecast. In the two-and-a-half minute short film, real school shooting survivors recite the lyrics to Katy Perry's song about youth innocence.

The Television Academy of Arts and Sciences selected this PSA over ads by Apple, Chevy, Meta and Change the Ref for the Creative Arts category.

The PSA was a collaboration among gun control advocacy non-profit Sandy Hook Promise, premier New York City advertising agency BBDO New York, and film production company SMUGGLER. "Teenage Dream" is the latest in a series of short film PSAs by Sandy Hook Promise and BBDO that includes their previous Emmy Award-winner "Back-to-School Essentials."

Nicole Hockley, the co-founder and CEO of Sandy Hook Promise whose son Dylan, who was killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, accepted the award at the Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards ceremony.

"We are deeply honored by this prestigious award," Hockley said. "The fact that the Academy chose to nominate two gun violence prevention ads, ours and Change the Ref’s, among the best commercials of 2021 underscores just how important this issue is and why we must work together to end this epidemic plaguing our country."