Trauer Now - Nobody gets out of here alive.
What Anthony Hoppkins casually says in an interview is an undeniable truth: someone in Germany dies every 33 seconds. Every time, loved ones are left behind. And yet mourning is one of the last major taboos in our society. Studies show that there are social changes that are increasingly anonymising funerals and mourning, making it more difficult to process and heal. So it's time to challenge the silence.
Together with the Zukunftsinstitut and initiated by the Strassacker company and the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Friedhof und Denkmal e. V., we launched an online magazine on the topic of healing grief. The title: Trauer Now („Grief Now“).
When one person dies, many mourn. A wide variety of editorial articles shed light on the emotion of grief from different angles and international perspectives. Trauer Now struck a nerve—this became clear in the responses we received from affected individuals, journalists, and cemetery staff alike.
One death every 33 seconds in Germany means nearly a million deaths a year—and countless people grieving. Our central idea, the “death clock,” highlights this staggering scale and poses a central question: What do we do with all this grief?
So, what does a campaign like this look like? Dark and somber? Not at all.We wanted to bring grief out of the shadows and into everyday life. That’s why we chose pink—giving the campaign vibrancy and a bold, fresh look. The key visual is a horizontal line, symbolizing the inner rupture grief causes—and the slow healing that follows.“(...) Grief should be more visible. Out of the shadows. Grown-up and unflinching. (...) So I’m thrilled with the creators of Grief Now. They have exactly the fresh approach I’ve been longing for. THANK YOU.” – via Facebook
“Dear Trauer Now team, I read about the website today after seeing an ad in the Berlin U-Bahn and I’m absolutely thrilled! (...) It feels wonderful and healing to read your short articles. I’m really grateful I found this!”
– From a Facebook comment on ‘Why do we need Grief Now?’
We took Trauer Now to the big stage with a powerful stunt: in Berlin, passersby witnessed the “death clock” updated every 33 seconds in a live art performance by acrobats—creating a striking, media-friendly spectacle. The clock was accompanied by a loud demonstration, demanding the right to grieve.
To support the campaign, posters and digital citylight ads appeared throughout central Berlin. A standout visual moment: guerrilla projections of the digital death clock on buildings across Berlin, Cologne, Munich, Hamburg, and Frankfurt.
