Other female family members such as aunts and sisters will also be earmarked in the campaign.
The Home Office will handle the work in-house. It will target women's magazines such as Pick Me Up and Bella that use real-life stories where they can place knife crime case studies.
Mothers will be urged to talk to their children about the risk of carrying weapons.
The news comes as it was revealed this week that one in three young people living in cities think it acceptable to carry a knife in self-defence because violence is so rife.