Fashion That Saves Lives
Gegen den Tod · BBDO Germany · 2020 · Role: Executive Creative Director · Awards: D&AD 2022, Red Dot 2022, iF Design, Effie Germany finalist 2022
Reached 28 million people in four months with zero paid media budget. Website visits jumped by 91 percent. All 3,500 collection pieces sold out in weeks, translating to roughly 24,500 potential lives saved.
How do you get young Germans to become organ donors without making them talk about death?
Most Germans say they support organ donation. Hardly anyone fills out the card. The system is opt-in, and over coffee people would rather look into each other’s eyes than talk about donating their eyeballs. Another PSA wasn’t going to fix that.
Then we found a loophole. In Germany, a signed statement of intent is all it takes to become a donor. And you can write that statement on anything. A napkin. A receipt. A hoodie.
So we turned a legal statement into a fashion statement.
The idea
The Afterlife Collection is streetwear made with top German designers, good enough to wear from the Büro straight to Berghain. Every piece has the exact legal phrase printed on the fabric: “I give permission for organs and tissue to be taken from my body after a doctor has certified my death.” Sign it with a fabric marker, and your shirt is now a legally binding donor card.
The press kits went out in real organ transport boxes on national Organ Donation Day. Subtle, it was not.
What I did
Pitched the idea and got the agency behind it.
Led the team through dozens of ways to carry the legal text, from invisible UV-ink tattoos to hanger tags. We put it right on the clothes, because wearing the pledge is what starts the conversation.
Kept the team going when COVID pushed the launch, and got it out the door.
Most fashion is to die for. This collection is for after.
Want to talk about work like this?
Email me or find me on LinkedIn.