Homelessness can’t be ignored any longer. Our first campaign for national homelessness charity Crisis aims to make sure it won’t be.

The campaign started from the insight that the more people we see sleeping rough, the more invisible they become. To address this – and raise awareness of the worsening homelessness problem – we worked with hyper realism artist Sophie de Oliveira Barata to create a colossal 4.3m high, hyper-realist sculpture that is impossible to ignore.

The sculpture’s face is based on an AI-generated amalgamation of 17 individuals who have experienced different forms of homelessness and who have been supported by Crisis. QR codes around the installation allow visitors to read some of these people’s stories, as well as offering ways to support the charity. The sculpture was unveiled outside King’s Cross station at the campaign launch, before travelling to the Bullring in Birmingham later in the week. With rents rising at their fastest rate in 16 years and households across Britain struggling with increasing cost of living pressures, Crisis are seeing more people pushed into poverty and at risk of homelessness. The message of this campaign is simple: homelessness can’t be ignored any longer. We want people to talk about it. To care about it. To act. Because only by engaging with the issue, can we help to solve it. The timing in early December matches the charity’s most important time of the year for fundraising, and the toughest time for those forced into sleeping rough.

To amplify the message, the installation is supported by a 50” film launching in an exclusive premier break on Channel 4 which depicts a simple human connection to highlight the problem. Images and BTS content feature in press coverage across the launch week, and Crisis ambassadors shared their support under the campaign hashtag #cantbeignored.