Sir Bob Jones
nopunchespulled.com
Last week I reported on a Lower Hutt funeral parlour’s ludicrous advertising message in its weekly half page advertisement. This it will be recalled, was, “IS DEALING WITH A LOCALLY OWNED FUNERAL HOME IMPORTANT TO YOU?”
We constantly read of incidents involving assumed corpses suddenly coming awake (one last week). When I look at this ridiculous message I immediately imagined a corpse in a coffin lifting the lid after over-hearing the funeral outfit’s staff talking and yelling, “Get me out of here you bastards. I heard one of you mentioning living in Upper Hutt”.
I also advised this absurdity was alongside a photo of the firm’s seven personnel, one of whom screamed axe murderer and two who appear deranged.
This advert has run weekly for as long as I can recall, but following my helpful well meaning observation, alas no longer. Plainly there’s been a staff uprising for this week, this long-standing advert has been terminated. Instead, it’s been replaced showing only the axe-murderer-looking bloke who must be the boss. Now with his apparent staff desertion, he’s seeking the public’s involvement and asking people to email him and let him know whether it’s important to them that he lives in Lower Hutt and not say Wellington ten minutes away. Fun awaits.
Email him as he’s requested at “[email protected]”. I’ve sent my response advising I won’t be able to sleep at night should he shift to Petone. That said, enough publicity and this nonsense could start an advertising trend. The mind boggles at the possibilities. For example, a restaurant could advertise asking “Is it important to you that our waiters wear lacy underwear?” or a dentist, “Is it important to you that our staff speak Swahili and eat unbuttered toast?”
These off-beat requests would certainly be attention-grabbers and may well actually be smart publicity techniques. Who knows; if there’s an Advertising Industry Hall of Fame Barry may be destined for a statue of himself in the foyer for pioneering such a trend.
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