March For Our Lives - The Most Vicious Cycle
Winner of 18 Clios overall - 10 Music Clios
March For Our Lives – The Most Vicious Cycle
An anthem for a generation raised on lockdown drills
To break through the numbing routine of mass shootings in America, we created a music video that visualizes the issue in a painfully literal way, a Rube Goldberg machine representing the endless, mechanical cycle of gun violence.
Each trigger sets off the next. One tragedy leads to another. And just like in real life, the cycle resets without resolution.
At the emotional core of the film is the song “Safe”, written and recorded by Kesha and her younger brother Sage Sebert in the days following the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. The song had never been released, until now.
We brought in Chika, a then-unsigned artist and rising voice in protest music, to write and perform two powerful verses describing what it’s like growing up in the shadow of mass shootings. (Chika would go on to be nominated for Best New Artist at the 2020 Grammy Awards.)
Launch & Cultural Reach
The film premiered on MTV’s Total Request Live, and aired in its entirety, all nine minutes, every hour for an entire weekend.
It became both a call to action and a meditation on the emotional toll of a generation that’s never known safety without caveats.
Most Vicious Cycle Posters
Safe written by Sage Sebert, Kesha, Chika
Lyrics
[Chorus - Sage + Kesha]
In a mad man's world
Happens every day
I don’t understand
Why the rules can't change
I don't wanna be a moment of silence
I don’t wanna be an early grave
When I'm walking through the halls
I don't wanna be brave
I just wanna be safe
[Verse 1 - Chika]
We were just looking for a good time
Now it's goodbyes for no reason
Every day gun season
Breathin' was uneven
People down on knees and
Everything was a blur
Can't tell you where he was
But I remember where we were
(Look)
Lately we can't even have our past times
We leave our homes and wonder if it'll be our last time
[Pre-Chorus - Sage + Kesha]
If I die before I wake
Please forgive all my mistakes
Know that I was gonna stand for
Something, something, something
I’ve got so much life to live
And I’ve got so much love to give
Please don't take it all for nothing
Nothing, nothing, nothing
[Chorus - - Sage + Kesha]
In a mad man’s world
Happens every day
I don't understand
Why the rules can't change
I don't wanna be a moment of silence
I don’t wanna be an early grave
When I'm walking through the halls
I don't wanna be brave
I just wanna be safe
[Verse 2 - Chika]
Politicians only slight work
Tell me what is my life worth
Mamas look at babies saying bye while they in diapers
Used to be afraid of snipers
Boogie Man, Pied Piper
Now we in the street afraid of rifles
They end up in the wrong hands
Say we shouldn't ban all
Does the right to bear arms trump the fight to stand tall
Cause the money, greenest foliage in cemeteries
People up in power cool with laws remaining sedentary
Think I've had enough of it
I'm just putting up with it
We gotta make a difference
We won't let them take another kid
I'm done with it
[Pre-Chorus - - Sage + Kesha]
If I die before I wake
Please forgive all my mistakes
Know that I was gonna stand for
Something, something, something
I've got so much life to live
And I've got so much love to give
Please don't take it all for nothing
Nothing, nothing, nothing
[Chorus - - Sage + Kesha]
In a mad man's world
Happens every day
I don't understand
Why the rules can't change
I don't wanna be a moment of silence
I don't wanna be an early grave
When I'm walking through the halls
I don't wanna be brave
I just wanna be safe