The Royal Canadian Legion is bringing digital advertisers together to honour a longstanding Remembrance Day tradition.

On Saturday, the Legion – with support from GroupM’s media buying and planning division and Wunderman Thompson Canada on creative – has coordinated a two-minute blackout aligning with the two minutes of silence observed on Nov. 11. During this period, thousands of digital billboards across the country will go black before showing a message that prompts Canadians to remember those who fought for our country.

“The act of taking two minutes of silence to remember Canada’s fallen is sacred,” says Nujma Bond, national spokesperson for the Royal Canadian Legion. “This innovative blackout campaign is a bold reminder of the importance of this act, no matter where you are at 11 a.m. on Remembrance Day, and we invite other organizations to take part.”

According to Wunderman Thompson’s data, the average person is exposed to 10,000 advertising messages per day – a figure that will be slightly smaller on Saturday, thanks to the effort. With the Canadian billboard market is valued at $500 million, it is estimated that blacking out the billboards for the moment will cost $191,400.

“This is a provocative strategy and one that truly shows how impactful media can be in building awareness of an important message,” says Kevin Johnson, CEO of GroupM Canada. “We know the power of delivering the right message at the right time in the right place to Canadians, but also the importance of taking a break as a sign of respect.”

This is not the Legion’s first effort to create a culturally relevant moment for remembrance. Earlier this year, the non-profit and Wunderman Thompson (which has merged with VMLY&R to from VML, effective January) worked together to reimagine the controversial Canadian passport redesign in a bid to drive a more constructive and positive solution to the debate that had arisen around it.