Who would've thought you could employ humor in funeral services advertising? Nevertheless, my creative teammate and I went right at it in this campaign of two ten-second TV spots by addressing how uncomfortable even talking about it was. We identified with the audience, who...nope...didn't want to hear anything about it. But Forest Lawn, the largest mortuary company in California at the time, was able to get its low cost message across.
The result was the campaign made a huge impression. Forest Lawn's inquiries and new business grew dramatically that year. Fred Llewellyn, the CEO of FLM was very pleased, and pleased that we had found a way to make his uncomfortable-but-necessary business seem more sympathetic.
And the campaign was featured in the next year's prestigious Communication Arts's Best-in-Advertising Annual.
