Classify this post under “I’m surprised – but we should have seen it coming”.
If you think you are a dedicated sports fan or Trekkie – what better way to demonstrate this dedication by displaying this brand with your journey to the “Final” frontier.
For a currently undisclosed price – Eternal Image will sell you a Star Trek Themed Casket or Urn.
But it is not just dedicated Gene Roddenberry fans that are getting in on the action – Major League Baseball has agreed to license team logos for the same line of products.
So should we interested in this? Should this type of product licensing even be encouraged or is it exploiting and commercially branding one of, if not the, most spiritual events in any family or social group. Other examples of this trend can be found at MIT’s Ad Labs blog under the following post: Brands on Tombstones.
Separating out the ethical questions around such a product – and just focusing on the brand implications, these examples reveal a moment where branding has either overlapped or overtaken religious symbols and icons.
Could this potentially happen with any brand with high emotional involvement? Should brands even aspire to have this strong a connection with a consumer where it literally becomes a proxy for religion?
