If fewer citizens clammed up about illegal handgun use, Toronto would be much safer. That’s the core message of a pro bono campaign that’s hitting the city’s streets this week, with creative by DDB Toronto, media space donated by Astral Media and Zoom Media and photography by Frank Hoedl.

The contribution to Toronto Crime Stoppers’ ‘Cash for Guns’ fall awareness campaign features OOH posters with striking photographs of various Toronto locations including a school locker, a garbage can, a sewer grate, a car trunk and an apartment window. Superimposed on each one are quotation marks surrounding an empty space to suggest that, thanks to an anonymous tip, police were able to seize dangerous weapons.

‘We recognized the biggest barrier to someone calling in a tip is anonymity,’ explains DDB Canada SVP/CD Andrew Simon. ‘The use of the quotation marks allows us to visually demonstrate that Toronto Crime Stoppers is not concerned about the caller’s identity, just the information they have.’