Mayor Landrieu and the city of New Orleans have had a longstanding partnership in advocacy with Spike Lee that dates back to the filming of When the Levees Broke and If God is Willing and The Creek Don’t Rise . His work has shown true sensitivity to the people of New Orleans and helped attract unprecedented international aid to our shores.

So the Mayor barely had to ask before Mr. Lee’s advertising agency, Spike DDB, signed on pro bono to take NOLA FOR LIFE from a plan to a full-blown, thoughtful yet provocative awareness campaign.

“Bright young lives are being snuffed out on New Orleans’ streets daily. Our young Black men are killing each other like it's a self-imposed genocide. It is our job, our responsibility, to make them understand the value of their lives and help them to achieve their greatest potential.” – Spike Lee

The idea is that the frequent news reports that mark each death do little more than discourage, desensitize and distract from a critical truth: there’s so much more to the story.