Anti-knife crime charity The Ben Kinsella Trust – together with M&C Saatchi and Clear Channel – is debuting an innovative, AI-powered campaign to increase awareness of knife crime on Mother’s Day (19 March) this year. 



While advocating for decreased knife crime in the UK, the campaign aims to highlight the thoughts that might run through a mother’s mind when hearing a passing ambulance. This year’s launch comes after 315 people were admitted to hospital with knife-related injuries around Mother’s Day last year.

In what they describe as a world-first initiative, M&C Saatchi and Clear Channel have worked together to develop a machine learning system that has been trained to understand the sound of an ambulance siren.

The technology will be installed within out-of-home bus shelters in cities across the UK. The campaign will also include nearly 1,000 live digital billboards and Adshels, with added support from organic social media activity.

Each time an ambulance passes by one of the smart poster campaigns, its siren will trigger the installation to showcase hard-hitting dialogue shared by mothers about knife crime. This includes passages reflecting various mothers’ thoughts and fears, as well as text message exchanges between real mothers and their sons that implore them to stay safe and refrain from carrying a knife.

Find out more on M&C Saatchi.