Siren Poster

The Ben Kinsella Trust is launching an innovative new machine learning campaign on Mother’s Day in the UK, to raise awareness of the devastating impact of knife crime.

Last year, 315 people were admitted to hospital with knife-related injuries around Mother’s Day. Sadly, too many didn’t make it home. This campaign aims to raise awareness of the dangers of knife crime, highlighting the thoughts that go through a mother’s mind whenever she hears the sound of an ambulance siren.

This innovative poster campaign is based on anxious messages and text exchanges between real mothers and their sons imploring them to stay safe and not to carry a knife.

In a world first, M&C Saatchi London worked with Clear Channel to develop a machine learning system which was trained to understand what an ambulance siren sounds like.

Every time an ambulance drives past, or is in close proximity, its siren triggers the technology installed to show powerful messages from mothers to their sons, making the connection between ambulances and the genuine worry mothers have when they hear one stronger and more powerful than ever before.

In addition to this AI-driven technology, the campaign also includes nearly 1,000 live digital billboards and Adshels across the UK. Some showcase the thoughts and fears of mothers, while others ask sons not to carry a knife this Mother’s Day. This is supported by organic social media activity.

This campaign is a follow up to M&C Saatchi and the Ben Kinsella Trust’s award-winning ‘Shout out to my son’ radio campaign which ran in 2019. The radio adverts featured mothers making emotional pleas to their sons to stop carrying a knife.