The campaign aims to clamp down on mobile phone crime and highlights the fact that all the UK mobile phone networks now share information on a single database. Posters featuring the line "Stolen phones don't work anymore" and a helpline for people to call if their phone is lost or stolen have been produced, under the Immobilise Mobile Phone Crime banner.
This means that any mobile phone that is reported stolen or lost is now blocked across all UK networks, making them useless even if the SIM card is changed.
The campaign will kick off with a high-impact London blitz on bus shelters, billboards, inside buses, railway stations and on the tube. It will roll out in other phone crime hotspots across the country. Creative is by Brand Union, with media buying through Matters Media.
Backers of the campaign include retail outlets The Carphone Warehouse, The Link and Phones 4U, as well as telecoms companies including O2, One.Tel, Orange and Virgin Mobile.
The government has introduced new laws to make it a criminal offence to reprogramme mobile phones, with penalties of up to five years in jail.
Charles Dunstone, chief executive of The Carphone Warehouse, said: "The message of the campaign is clear -- stolen mobile phones don't work any more. In addition, if you attempt to change the identity of the phone you are looking at a five-year prison sentence. We urge all mobile phone users, both pre-pay and contract, to report their handsets if they are stolen or lost and put a stop to mobile phone crime."
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