Death in advertising.

A little while ago, I tore into the new Google+ advert for being a little bit emotion-by-numbers. And as I saw it again recently, an idea occurred to me.

Why don't advertisers for Social Media take on death head-on? The Google+ advert tiptoed around the subject, but it's a fascinating one, and could give a platform an interesting edge, especially among an older audience. Imagine if, at the end of the commercial, a dying "Tom" had handed his now grown-up son a piece of paper with a password written on it - and the son had gone onto Google+ to find a circle with "funeral invites" written on it. Then there might have been a bit of pathos in there.

Anyway, I hope someone picks up on the idea, because it won't be all that long before old age overtakes accidents and untimely illnesses as the most common cause of death for Facebook members. In the meantime, here's a few adverts with a little death...