Gravestones Advertising Video Games?

An anonymous reader writes "In an insane bid to drum up publicity The Guardian tells of Acclaim Entertainment who are seeking to enlist the help of the recently bereaved, well the poorer ones anyway, to help promote their latest game." My favorite comment is a spokesman for the Church of England who said they wouldn't allow it saying "There was enough fuss with plastic flowers in churchyards." Anyway, I just found this really surreal.

Advertising on private land

[Chiasmus_]

You know, I've always wondered why people didn't sell the walls of their houses to be used as billboards. I guess this article explains it all:

"It is illegal to put any advertising up outdoors without planning permission"

- which is really a pretty good law, I think, since the last thing I want to see while driving down the street to my home is tampon ads in my neighbors' windows.

In the U.S., though, I can't help but think that these laws can't possibly apply to political campaigning, since there are picket signs all over half the lawns in the country every two years or so.

Could politicans use that same loophole to do graveyard advertising? Could I legally replace my great-grandmother's tombstone with one that said, "If I were alive, I'd vote for Nader!"

Sometimes I think Slashdot should be chumpdot.

[Neck_of_the_Woods]

You played right into the hands of the marketing dingbat that thought this up. You think they are really going to do this. No, but you just handed them more hits and advertisement to there target market than they would have ever had any other way.

They tricked you, you tricked us, they got the word out. How many people clicked on this, and now know what shadowmanII is, what it is for, and who made it.

Nice job, you should charge them for click throughs....

Wow...

[nurightshu]

ObDisclaimer: The first bit of this may seem to wander a bit offtopic, but it'll be relevant by the end. <UsedCarSalesGrin> Trust me.</UsedCarSalesGrin>

I once had my best friend tell me I was morbid and quite possibly insane when I detailed what I want done with my corpse.

It's not all that terrible, I think. For the past three years or so, I've really thought that it would be cool to have a webcam mounted inside my coffin (powerlines and networking cable and all that run to it too, of course). After I die, I want people to be able to log on to a website and check my decomposition.

The University of Tennessee, I believe it is, maintains a forensic "Body Farm" where hundreds of corpses are decomposing in various conditions. It's closed to the public (for obvious reasons), but I think there should be a little more openness in society about the mechanics of death. It's fascinating because it's so secretive. I think by mounting a small light and a webcam inside my coffin, it might give the world a fresh perspective on thanatology.

Of course, maintaining the site would cost some money, and I won't exactly be around to earn any. Thanks to Slashdot, I now know that Acclaim will be the first company for whom I'll do a salespitch. Any other takers?

Re:Why all the fuss?

[SomeoneYouDontKnow]

Agreed! If some of these marketing people had their way, we'd be exposed to ads 24/7.

As for ads in the bathroom, check out your local bar. I've seen many with miniature billboards on the wall behind the toilet. I guess they figured if people read what folks scrawl on the bathroom walls, they'll read anything. Although, I'm not sure if I'd want my product associated with a bar bathroom.

And we can't forget about the scheme Swatch cooked up in which they were going to beam ads from a ham radio satellite, blatantly in violation of regulations stating that ham radio frequencies are noncommercial.

Then there was the one where this company would wrap your car with ads in the same way that city buses are done. At least they were going to pay a decent amount for it. I guess they were a victim of the dot-bomb fallout.

As for ads on the moon, I don't know about that, but I do know there was a plan back around the late 1980s to launch a huge plastic sheet into low orbit. It was supposed to be visible in the evening sky. I think the original one was supposed to be a green dot, but real ads were to follow if that one was successful.

I'm waiting for some company to see if they can cut a deal with the government to put ads on money. After all, we handle a lot of it (well, some people do, anyway), and it passes from person to person quite often. It's only a matter of time, I'm guessing.

Wow.

[illturner]

The boundaries of bad taste are really being tested with this.

What makes it worse, is that this game, if good, might be popular for a couple of years. Do these ads come off after a certain amount of time, or will your gravestone be forever marked with an advertisement long after the game is history?

Chuang Tzu's take

[jcsehak]

I think there should be a little more openness in society about the mechanics of death.

Agreed.
When Chuang Tzu was about to die, his disciples planned a big funeral. He asked "Why not just leave me on the ground?" They said "Because then crows and kites will pick apart your body."
"So?" he replied. "Above ground, I get eaten by crows and kites. Below it by ants and worms. What have you got against birds?"