# Imagine this -- billboards placed on headstones of graves. **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 18, 2002, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/imagine-this-billboards-placed-on-headstones-of-graves/119559 "2002-07-18T05:27:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![asahiJpx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/90db22/32.png) [@asahiJpx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahiJpx)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2002, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/imagine-this-billboards-placed-on-headstones-of-graves/119559/1 "2002-07-18T05:27:58Z")
> **[Game publicity plan raises grave concerns](https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2002/mar/15/games.advertising)** > > A computer games firm has been accused of pushing back the frontiers of bad taste after it announced that it was seeking to advertise its latest title on gravestones. I am not buying this idea. ---
**Author:** ![Achernar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e274bd/32.png) [@Achernar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Achernar)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2002, 9:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/imagine-this-billboards-placed-on-headstones-of-graves/119559/2 "2002-07-18T09:32:27Z")
Oh, I would so do that. Not on anyone else’s stone, but on my own. Of course, I would only do it for a product that I liked. Which, if it’s a yet-to-be-released video game, and I’m dead, might make it kind of difficult. At the very least, I don’t find it as shocking and appalling as the people in that article do. ---
**Author:** ![BraheSilver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ecccb3/32.png) [@BraheSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BraheSilver)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2002, 9:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/imagine-this-billboards-placed-on-headstones-of-graves/119559/3 "2002-07-18T09:51:38Z")
Do they plan on updating the ads? I envision a lone guy with a scraper, a folder of ads, and a pot of glue stalking up and down the rows of graves putting new posters on the headstones. Grieving Wife: “Oh Irving, Irving!” Scary Scraper Guy: “'Scuse me, ma’am.” ::scrape splat stick:: GW: “Ooh, ShadowMan 3 is coming! I’d love that! I’ll go buy it right now!” SSG: “I bet Irving would want it that way, ma’am.” Otherwise we’d have people wandering about mocking graves with especially dated ads on them. Imagine if you had a picture of Pitfall Harry on your grave - “New for Atari! Intense 1-button action!” Knowing me, I’ll probably be buried with a controller for the NES anyway, but I won’t have to publicize it. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Eternal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecb155/32.png) [@Eternal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eternal)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2002, 9:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/imagine-this-billboards-placed-on-headstones-of-graves/119559/4 "2002-07-18T09:56:07Z")
It’s about time those space-takers gave back to the community and made us aware of new products that could improve our lives. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_Wright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@Steve\_Wright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_Wright)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2002, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/imagine-this-billboards-placed-on-headstones-of-graves/119559/5 "2002-07-18T11:48:07Z")
There’s a story I’ve heard (possibly apocryphal, but too good to check) of a gravestone whose inscription reads something like:- > [@](#): > > Here lies Elizabeth Jones, wife of Thomas Jones, marble cutter. This monument is erected as a testament to her memory and an example of his work. Monuments in the same style $200. These guys are just moving with the times… ---
**Author:** ![Futile\_Gesture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f05b48/32.png) [@Futile\_Gesture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Futile_Gesture)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2002, 11:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/imagine-this-billboards-placed-on-headstones-of-graves/119559/6 "2002-07-18T11:49:58Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Achernar \* > \*\*At the very least, I don’t find it as shocking and appalling as the people in that article do. \*\* How to get really cheap publicity for your product: 1. Make up an stupid idea to promote your product that’ll upset people. 2. Have absolutely no intention of doing it. 3. Wait for a slow news day. 4. Put out press release that says that you intend to promote your product this way. 5. Stand back and wait for lots of column inches of outrage. If you’re really lucky they’ll rope in horrified quotes from other organisations. Hopfully no-one will notice how patently ridiculous the idea really is. 6. Congratulations, you have got tons of publicity for minimal cost. Of course the newspaper knows as much as you do how the whole thing is just a publicity stunt, but who cares if it fills newspapers? The only ones wasting their time are the organisations duped into commenting on it. ---
**Author:** ![slortar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6bbea6/32.png) [@slortar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slortar)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2002, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/imagine-this-billboards-placed-on-headstones-of-graves/119559/7 "2002-07-18T13:21:20Z")
Personally, I’m much more appalled at the quality of Acclaim’s games than any advertising gimmick they can come up with. WTF are their programmers thinking anyway?!