The UnburiedCasket.

It will not rest until femicide ends.

★ CANNES LIONS 2026 · SILVER, GLASS: THE LION FOR CHANGE

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Client: Women For Change
Agency: Edelman UAE + Edelman Africa
My role: Creative Director
Market: South Africa
Channels: Experiential, PR, social, OOH

00:00 / 00:00

CASE FILM · PLAYS RIGHT HERE#UNBURYTHETRUTH

[ THE CASE IN ONE BREATH ]

In one year, 5,578 women were murdered in South Africa. A 33.8% rise. The country had gone numb to the headlines. So we stopped making headlines and held a funeral. A casket 33.8% larger than standard, carried to the seat of government. Nobody could look away.

THE TRUTH

Numbers don't
march.

Femicide in South Africa rose 33.8% in a single year. 5,578 women. Protests had become routine, and routine is easy to scroll past.

Women For Change had one demand: declare gender-based violence and femicide a national disaster. They needed the country to feel the number, not just read it.

A young woman in a cap covers her mouth, eyes full of tears, in the middle of the protest crowd — PRETORIA · APRIL 2025

THE IDEA

Turn the protest
into a funeral.

In South Africa, a funeral procession stops traffic and silences crowds. So we held one for thousands of women. A hand-beaded Zulu casket, built 33.8% larger than standard: the size of the rise itself.

The beaded casket in purple, white and black, labelled 33.8 percent larger, symbolising the surge in femicide — THE SCALE IS THE STATISTIC

1 bead. 1 woman.

5,578 beads, threaded by hand by a beading collective. Inside: a memorandum to government and 150,000 signatures. On the casket: the victims' faces, and a QR code to their stories.

THE CASKET · DRAG →01 / 04

Close-up of the hand-threaded purple, white and black Zulu beadwork and silver casket handles — 01 · Hand-threaded Zulu beadwork

Beaded lettering on the casket lid reading hashtag Unbury the Truth — 02 · #UnburyTheTruth, in beads

The casket with a board of victims' portraits and a QR code — 03 · Their faces. Their stories.

The plaque beside the casket explaining it is 33.8 percent larger and each purple bead represents a woman — 04 · Until real change happens, it will not be buried

THE PROCESSION

Pretoria
stood still.

April 2025. Thousands carried the casket to the Union Buildings, the seat of government. The Deputy Minister for Women signed the memorandum live, at the protest.

Table Mountain and the Nelson Mandela Bridge lit up purple. The country changed its avatars. Broadcasters went live.

LIVE ON NATIONAL NEWS

Women carry the beaded casket through the streets of Pretoria — THE CAMPAIGN FILM

The beaded casket in front of the Nelson Mandela statue at the Union Buildings — UNION BUILDINGS

Two young women embrace in grief at the protest — THE CROWD

A woman with closed eyes under a red veil at the procession — THE MOURNING

THE IMPACT

Then the government
moved.

Within a week: a 90-day national blitz on femicide. The petition kept growing, to 1.1 million signatures from 13,000 cities. Donations to Women For Change grew 9x and a support line launched.

In November 2025, gender-based violence and femicide was declared a National Disaster. Civil society made it happen. The casket made it impossible to ignore.