A new campaign by the charity Crisis is making homelessness "impossible to ignore" for Londoners, by placing a giant, hyper realistic sculpture of a homeless person outside the city's Kings Cross station.

Agency Adam&Eve/DDB worked with artist Sophie de Oliveria Barata and production company Creative Giants to create the 4.3 meter (14.1 foot) sculpture, which uses AI face mapping technology to combine facial features of 17 real people who have experienced homelessness. It took 10 weeks to create and is surrounded by QR codes leading visitors towards the Crisis website with opportunities to read people’s stories of experiencing homelessness, as well as donate to the charity. After today, the sculpture will move to Birmingham's Bull Ring. 

The sculpture also features in a primetime TV ad made for the campaign, below. Produced in collaboration with new-land and directed by Bjarke Underbjerg, the film carries the same "Impossible to ignore’ message that runs throughout the integrated campaign.

The campaign is based on the insight that the more homeless people we see, the less we really see them. It's an all too common reaction as people choose to walk past and ignore the devastating impact of homelessness because it’s too uncomfortable to confront. 

“Every day at Crisis we are confronted with the impact homelessness has on people’s lives and every day we see that it doesn’t have to be this way," said Catherine Ashford, head of marketing and communications at Crisis, in a statement. "But we know homelessness is an issue people find overwhelming, and while many want to see change, too many of us continue to turn away. Now, with rents rising and increasing cost of living pressures pushing more and more people into homelessness, this growing problem must finally be confronted."