After Life – Benches of Hope

Client: Netflix

Park benches have long been places of commemoration, reflection, and grief, and also feature as a recurring symbol in the much-loved series After Life. So, for series three of the popular Netflix show we installed 25 Benches of Hope across the UK in collaboration with suicide prevention charity CALM. Inscribed with the series quote, “Hope is everything” and offering access to online resources from the charity, the benches captured the hearts and minds of audiences and helped to open up positive conversations around grief and its portrayal in the show.

The activation was successful in its role of driving awareness ahead of series launch, with over 700 mentions for Benches of Hope across digital, TV and radio, including 25 print and 10 broadcast pieces of coverage. More importantly it helped bring the topics of grief and mental health to the top of the media and public agenda, with 40,000 mentions for After Life and benches on social media and helping to increase CALM’s social media engagements by 64%, all at a time when the UK public was dealing with the aftereffects of the pandemic.