Sou da Paz's new Campaign Centers on the Collective Pain of Mothers Bereaved by Gun Violence

Jul. 19, 2025

Gun violence produces a double burden for Brazilian women: those who suffer violence, often based on their gender and race, and the pain of losing their loved ones, whether they are their children, husbands, fathers, sisters or friends.

Almost 76.97% of firearm victims in 2023 were black people, with more than half (54%) young people aged 15 to 29 and 94% men, according to a survey by the Sou da Paz Institute, from Brazil, with data from Datasus / Ministry of Health.

Half of the deaths due to aggression of women in 2023 were committed with firearms, 72% of these women were black and 59% were young people and adults up to 39 years old. In other words, this pain of grief and the search for justice in the face of the loss of close people also has a predominant face and race: almost 78% of firearm victims in 2023 were black people, with more than half (54%) young people aged 15 to 29 and 94% men, according to a survey by the Sou da Paz Institute with data from Datasus/Ministry of Health.

In the search for a spokesperson who would represent this pain of family loss, the Sou da Paz Institute gave life to MarIA, a character built with Artificial Intelligence that incorporated thousands of visual references representative of the prevalent profile of mothers of victims of armed violence in the country.

The minute-long film begins with MarIA introducing herself in an impactful way: "My name is Maria, Lúcia, Helena... Tania. The name you think of will have already lost a son or daughter to gun violence." And he continues: "We are also victims. I am the sum of all pains. And I give voice to mothers and families who cry without being heard." As a final message, the campaign encourages the voluntary and anonymous surrender of weapons, rescuing the first campaigns carried out by the Institute in the 1990s.

"This campaign aims to bring victims and their families back to the center of the debate. When we talk about the need for responsible regulation that establishes strict criteria for access to weapons, we are talking about preserving people's lives and preventing avoidable tragedies from happening," says Carolina Ricardo, executive director of the Sou da Paz Institute.

The original film, in Portuguese, is hosted on the https://lp.soudapaz.org/maria website, which presents information on how the voluntary surrender of weapons can be carried out.

In the video, MarIA's speech is accompanied by a male narration that contextualizes that many of the deaths could have been avoided if weapons were not easily available.

Carolina commented:

"We are inviting the population to think about the danger of the presence of the weapon added to a second of uncontrollability, which can lead to accidents with children, femicides, deaths due to banal fights in traffic, so we publicize the existence of a channel of the Ministry of Justice for people to get rid of a firearm,  whether it is legal or illegal, safely and anonymously, receiving monetary compensation for it."

The campaign, created and developed by the Troup, Cyranos agency in partnership with alegria®, was carried out by the production company Love Pictures Company, consumed two weeks of AI work and more than 300 prompts, made possible by the combination of ChatGPT, Midjourney, Photoshop, Magnific ai, Runway, Kling and Topaz programs. In addition to the involvement of four AI Filmmakers and two daily recordings with an actress, to capture voice and body expression as a reference. All the sound work was developed by Antfood, which gave voice to MarIA through the careful interpretation of black and brown announcers from the five regions of Brazil.

Marcelo Reis, founder of Alegria, a strategic creativity hub responsible for creating the campaign said:

"Much is said about how AI is being used to replace the human factor in communication, seeking to mimic feelings through characters that do not exist and just to make productions cheaper. We went on the path of the purpose behind the tool: MarIA exists, it is just not seen. AI, in this case, fulfilled its role: it gave life to the sum of thousands of faces, which would be impossible to present in a piece of communication in an exciting way. Only Artificial Intelligence would be able to reach the qualitatively correct features of this face."