Press release20th August 2025
The Fatal Question: Saatchi & Saatchi and StreetDoctors expose the deadly myth of ‘safe’ stabbings in new campaign
The work tackles the dangerous misconception that it’s possible to stab someone without risking their life
StreetDoctors has partnered with Saatchi & Saatchi to launch The Fatal Question, a powerful new campaign which spotlights a chilling misconception that is putting young lives at risk.
While knife crime has received widespread attention for many years, the Office of National Statistics (ONS) revealed in 2025 that police-recorded offences involving knives or sharp objectives have increased by 81% over the past 10 years.
The campaign for StreetDoctors, a charity tackling knife crime by empowering and educating young people to make different choices, investigates the dangerous misconception among this demographic that someone can be stabbed without inflicting serious or fatal harm.
As Martin Griffiths CBE, a leading UK trauma surgeon and Clinical Director for the London Violence Reduction Programme, highlights, “Over the years, I’ve been asked many times “Where is a safe place to stab someone?”. The question reflects a dangerous common myth and highlights the pressure that young people feel to potentially carry weapons.”
The Fatal Question campaign turns the question back to young people to find out what they really think. Teenagers from London schools were invited to engage with a life-sized, interactive human sculpture, pointing to areas of the body where they believed a stab wound would not be fatal – revealing the widespread misconceptions at the heart of the campaign.
Once a body part has been guessed, the statue emits a beam of light which triggers projections of the real-life stories of victims, accompanied by personal accounts from their loved ones, detailing the sobering stories of young people killed by a single stab wound to that area of the body.
The personal stories include high-profile cases such as 10-year-old Damilola Taylor, killed by a single stab to the thigh; Joshua Ribera, a Birmingham-based rapper killed by a single stab wound to his heart; and 12-year-old Ava White, who lost her life to a single stab wound in 2021.
The young people’s session with the statue has been captured in a three-minute film, directed by Jonathan Kneebone of The Glue Society, which will be broadcast across major cities across the UK this summer including London, Manchester, Birmingham, Cardiff and Glasgow.
StreetDoctors also hosted a series of workshops on the day with healthcare professionals, teaching young people life-saving first aid and how to deal with knife crime encounters. To continue bringing this vital education into the right spaces, the three minute film will form part of the charity’s ongoing education workshops in schools, prisons and local community groups.
To replicate the real life experience online, young people and educators can visit a dedicated interactive site to engage with an online version of the installation. It will be a destination for educators to search and find information on how to protect and educate children on the dangers of knife crime.
Franki Goodwin, CCO, Saatchi & Saatchi said “With The Fatal Question, our goal was to bring that reality to life in a way that was visceral and unforgettable. By asking teenagers to engage physically with the sculpture, make their own guesses, and then surrounding them with the real stories of young people who didn’t survive, we have shown how shocking these stories really are. These are difficult conversations, but they matter. If one young person walks away thinking twice, questioning what they thought they knew, then we’ve done something important.”
Martin Tilbury MBE, CEO of StreetDoctors said, “At StreetDoctors, we work with young people every day who are navigating complex realities where fear and misinformation can shape dangerous decisions. The question, ‘Where is a safe place to stab someone?’ is often asked out of confusion and worry by young people. The campaign is about supporting young people in their environment and providing them with informed information. Education is one of the most powerful tools we have to prevent street violence and this campaign is helping young people make the right life changing choices.”
The sculpture was created and built by Machine Shop, guided by Saatchi & Saatchi, in collaboration with The Glue Society. The campaign film is delivered in partnership with C-Screens – a leading UK TV OOH broadcaster – at strategically geo-located sites around the country, where young people are at a higher risk of knife crime related incidents. The film will also be shown at PowerLeague five-a-side football venues.