You Have An Obituary From Your Friend; Accept/Deny Funeral Arrangements?
from the that-growing-death-business dept
Social networking sites are definitely hot, but with Congress increasingly looking to block kids from using such sites, it’s no surprise that some entrepreneurs are targeting a slightly older demographic. There’s been a lot of talk about how it’s about time companies started offering products and services for the retiring baby boomers, and Monster.com founder Jeff Taylor is apparently taking up the challenge. To be honest, his site doesn’t sound all that different from plenty of other sites targeted at “silver surfers,” but this one tries to look a bit more caught up with the social networking times. Still, though, for a group of folks who probably would not want to be reminded of their own mortality, is it really worth it to focus on handy obituary alerts every time someone you know dies? Also, Jeff Taylor (who, at 45, is outside the target market of the site) probably doesn’t help things by stating: “The death business is growing.” Now there’s a marketing slogan: “You’re going to die soon. Let us help inform all your friends.”
Comments on “You Have An Obituary From Your Friend; Accept/Deny Funeral Arrangements?”
Good idea albeit a bit creepy
IMHO, the idea is good, but a bit creepy for my tastes. On a side note, can you imagine the target ads on this site?
I wonder if the users can sign up for SMS/Blog/XML alerts as well?
Re: Good idea albeit a bit creepy
feedburner.com/deadfriends.xml
hahah…
Just plain strange
I can’t see it being a big seller, I mean personally I’de be really weirded out by a website that I register for just to let me know someone died
You have a newly deceased friend.
-Contact this person?
-Delete this person from friendlist?
Re: Re:
Actually, I can see it the other way around.
user TECHDIRT would like to add you to their list.
— Allow, but do not add them to my list
— Allow, and add to my list
— Allow, add to my list, and add to my Obit Notice
— Ignore
— Ignore, and add to my Obit Notice
call me creepy..
It has a certaint amount of appeal.. I hate being blindsided by bad news, I’d rather have my stoic face ready… Of course, I would add alerts for all my enemies first… 🙂
How about starting at birth instead?
It is what is being done at Tot Jot, targeting parents of young children (those users fresh out of the other networks).
HAHA
That’s good…. great slogan…..
I'm not dead yet! I feel fine!
DEAR E-DED SUBSCRIBERS:
We regret to inform you that due to a server error, approximately six hundred thousand preliminary obituaries were erroenously sent out yesterday afternoon.
If you received a notice of the death of your loved one between 6pm and 11pm PST yesterday, it is possible your loved one is not truly dead yet. Please contact your loved ones separately though your usual contact channels to determine their true and current vital status.
It is the policy of our company to provide a loving final message from the departed to their friends, and in doing so enhancing the lives of those they leave behind by enhancing the deaths of the dear departed. Obviously the false emails delivered yesterday run contrary to our company’s core values.
As a result, we are now offering our service free for one year for anyone who received such a false email. That’s right, if you die within the next year, your message to your loved ones will be delivered at absolutely no cost to you. Also, for a limited time, you will receive our Premium Service at a discount. That’s right, place your order for one year of FREE notification service, and for only $50, you can upgrade to our Premium Service. As a Premium user, your loved ones will not only receive your final words to them, but when your soul reaches its final destination, your loved ones will also receive an SMS message! Standard SMS messages include “Rejoice! is at Peace in Heaven!” and “We’re very sorry, but went to The Bad Place.” Or create your own Custom Final Destination Message for only $10 more per recipient!
And, if your loved one DID actually die yesterday, we’re very sorry to hear about your loss, but are taking this opportunity to inform you that your loved one’s death was in no way caused by our server outage.
Thank you and have a nice day.
Re: I'm not dead yet! I feel fine!
DEAR E-DED SUBSCRIBERS
Due to a server error, the Standard SMS message format was incorrectly stated in our previous posting.
Correct Standard SMS messages include
Rejoice! YOUR NAME HERE is at Peace in Heaven!
and
We’re very sorry, but YOUR NAME HERE went to The Bad Place.
To clarify, YOUR NAME HERE is the name of the Premium User who would be the deceased, not the recipient of the message.
Also, it has been brought to our attention that some consumers have questioned our business tactics. While we are not a member of the Better Business Bureau, we would like to point out that we have been proudly serving Internet users who have died over the past 12 years, and we have never had a single complaint from any of them.
Thank you and have a nice day.
I can see the attraction....
I have a lot of online friends who none of my ‘real life’ friends know about. If I died tomorrow, most of my online friends would never find out about it, just think I was ignoring them ad infinitum, or got bored of whatever web site we used to ‘meet’ at, or been banned, or something…
R.I.P.
Boris Jacobsen has left the building.
Dear friend
If you are reading this message, I’m dead. As you know, I believe in an afterlife, and that I am there right now. God damn, but this place is boring. All these harps are going right through my skull, plus I don’t know anyone here. Can you do me a solid and kill yourself so we can at least meet for a beer?
Love,
Me
An ear to hear...
I’ve got a heap of ideas around web and sms based commercial product information systems with no ear to hear them. This is a good idea and slightly before its time but should naturally grow and the boomers continue to grow old. I’m an innovator, not an entrepreneur – but just starting to get off my bum and look for an ear to hear my ideas and see if there are any of the latter searching for some fresh ideas to partner up to.