Upsetting adverts for cremations and funerals are all over daytime TV, says Paul Routledge, while concerns are growing over practices in the end-of-life industry after recent scandals
Daytime telly is awash with competing adverts for cremations.
Some look like money-making scams, preying on old folk and their caring families. Give us your money! It’s almost like a scene out of Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
A financial adviser I trust tells me the end-of-life industry could become the next big selling scandal. Events in Hull suggest he’s right. Last month, 35 bodies and an unknown quantity of unidentified human ashes were found in a funeral parlour in the city.
Grieving family members complained of irregularities at Legacy Independent Funerals, saying they didn’t know if their loved ones’ ashes were genuine. Some second funerals may be necessary.
A 46-year-old man and a 23-year-old woman are on bail, arrested on suspicion of prevention of a lawful and decent burial, fraud by false representation, and fraud by abuse of position.
Police probing concerns over business practices also raided premises of a funeral director in Didcot and Wantage, Oxon, last Sunday. The company is now closed pending inquiries.
These cases could be the tip of a very nasty iceberg. They bring into sharp focus the unhappiness in many old folks’ households over TV funeral and cremation ads.
There is even a Care2 petition online: “Stop all the funeral advertisements on British TV every day especially targeting the elderly.”
Signer Tony S complains the cremation ad wars are depressing him and his wife, in their late 70s. “It affects our mental health.” Janet W simply pleads: “Please stop.”
Anne A points out: “Thousands of retired people have their TV on for comfort. This bombardment is aimed at them. It is depressing and unnecessary.”
I wouldn’t be surprised if this is the general view. I share it. Perhaps the Legacy Funerals scandal will force a rethink.
There is a wider issue here. Anyone can set up as a funeral director. The industry is a free for all, and it requires an
independent regulator, appointed by government, not the profiteers
