Green-Wood Cemetery starts PSA campaign aimed at stopping gun violence

Green-Wood Cemetery is playing its part in putting a stop to gun violence.

On Wednesday, June 22, the national historic landmark announced its social media PSA campaign whose goal is to highlight the issues of deaths by firearms and a call to put an end to it.

Green-Wood’s Facebook, Instagram and Twitter accounts feature a photo of a dug, empty grave and unmarked tombstone with the message, “Less business is fine with us. End gun violence now.” It’s also on the homepage of our website.

“It’s getting a lot of attention,” said Director of Development and Marketing Lisa Alpert of the campaign. “We see death every day and gun violence is not something anyone wants to see.”

The initiative — whose launch followed the mass shootings at an Orlando gay nightclub by just days — is taking place in collaboration with the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs as June marks Gun Violence Awareness Month.

According to Alpert, Green-wood has two aspects, its culture and arts side and the cemetery business. “While we were being approached as a culture institution by Cultural Affairs, we decided the public announcement would come from cemetery itself,” she said.

After being asked if the cemetery could help amplify Mayor Bill de Blasio’s message of gun violence awareness, Richard Moylan, the president of Green-Wood was the driving force behind the idea.

“Death is inevitable. But death at the end of the barrel of a gun is preventable,” he said. “Green-Wood is proud to join with Mayor de Blasio in his call for every New Yorker and American to be able to live in a nation free from gun violence. As the PSA says, less business is fine with us.”

“Our thoughts were how we could amplify the message,” Alpert added. “We are in a unique situation since we are a cemetery. We wanted our message to be strong and provocative, and that was our goal.”

Green-Wood hopes the message of peace is conveyed. “We’ve been a proud member of the Brooklyn community since 1838 and this affects the borough and it is a very important issue to us,” she said. “We are hoping for a human response and not a political response.”

For more information, visit www.green-wood.com.