Hard Calls Save Life By AMV BBDO

Mums share tragic stories about knife crimes in a hard-hitting campaign by AMV

Crimestoppers & Met Police 'Hard Calls Save Lives' by AMV BBDO

By Creative Salon

Mothers reliving the moments they heard their child was murdered is the focus of a new campaign for charity Crimestoppers and the Metropolitan Police Service, created by AMV BBDO.

The grief-heavy 'Hard Calls Save Lives' campaign includes a series of talking-heads style 30-second five films that confront the viewer with a visceral sense of what can be lost, aimed at trying to get Londoners to speak up if they suspect gun crime.

It reveals to the public the true cost of hesitating to inform the police of suspected criminal activity, in the hope that this will encourage anyone having second thoughts about making an anonymous call to Crimestoppers to overcome their reservations.

In the films, the first-hand accounts of the tragic tales are overlaid with footage of each of the grieving mothers. Dark details such as the oddity of using the word “embalm” in the same sentence as the name a child are included, hammering home the grisly reality of today's bloody knife crime epidemic.

The mums featured in the series of films- Jean, Yvonne, Becky, Lorraine and Lillian relive the hardest call they had to make after they found out their child had been murdered. Their stark, harrowing stories are accompanied by footage of each mother, their raw grief exposed and unfiltered.

The film, produced by Academy, is punctuated with text telling viewers how “Calling with information about knife crime may feel hard. But there are harder calls”, ending with the line “Hard calls save lives”, and a reminder of the Crimestoppers phone number as well as the fact that all information is given anonymously.

The five 30-second films will run on video-on-demand, along with five 60-second films and a 90-second film which will run online. The campaign also features six radio ads, each running at 60 seconds, plus a series of digital ads.

AMV BBDO’s Martin Loraine, who created the campaign, said: “Everyone understands that some people find it hard to call in with information. But these mothers show what a hard call really is. Our production saw each mother relive the most traumatic call they ever made, across an audio and film shoot.”

Crimestoppers is an independent charity run in partnership with the Met Police, whose aim is preventing crime.