I would like to see hard sell advertising for over 50 funeral plans banned.
- Thread starter Kaapstad
- Start date
We put some money in the bank a long time ago to cover the cost.
Unfortunately when my mother sees one of these adverts on daytime TV it gets her going and it can go on for weeks. There are also paper leaflets in mags that old people read like the TV guide, my mum uses it to help her work out what day of the week it is.
There is no need to ban the advertising if it were used more appropriately like after 11.00PM at night when a lot of old people have gone to bed. The adverts should be enough to let the rest of us know that these plans exist but not an all out battle on daytime TV for marketshare targeting the vulnerable. The plans often say that they give peace of mind to the elderly but in my mums case they are totally wreaking her life.
Yeah fair enough, if she's got that condition too then I guess even you explaining to her that she's covered isn't going to be sufficient. Perhaps the timing of the adverts does need to be looked at - though I guess lots of the customers are the elderly themselves rather than the sons/daughters.
Yeah we used the co-op for my Gran, I'm not sure whether she'd paid in advance or not or whether it was something my dad and uncle sorted out but they were really good. I guess there is potential in that industry for some bad firms to try and take advantage of people at their lowest point (not just the adverts the OP is talking about but even things like trying to up sell them on a coffin or some urn etc..) going with place like the co-op reduces the chances of that sort of thing.
I guess there can be some confusion sometimes as (AFAIK) sometimes local authorities do cover the costs for people in certain circumstances - though there are likely quite strict criteria to meet, she may have heard about something like that.
I don't mean to be insensitive, but I don't think that the fact your mother reacts badly to these adverts due to mental illness justifies banning them. As long as adverts aren't misleading/fraudulent adults should be allowed to make their own decisions in life.
AAAAnd there we have it!
For some reason, Reminded me of the Law and Order episode "Blood Money"
Insurance salesman sells policies to European Jews in run up to WW2 and refuses payouts to families of holocaust victims on the grounds that there were no death certificates
They might call themselves financial advisers but they're not - they're not regulated nor authorised. A blanket ban is the only way to best try to eliminate this activity. It is a bit like cyber security - nobody will ever call you and ask for your personal details and password. It is slowly catching on, so just add on the same behavioural change - nobody will ever call you to sell an insurance, loan, investment or pension.
The regulator already works on the assumption that the consumer knows less than the product provider, so the instinctive next step should be to install cultural acceptance that products in these areas should never be sold cold.
Unfortunately that bar is set too low these days, as it doesn't provide sufficient protection to potentially vulnerable customers. People should be left to make their own decisions, but there should be an acceptance that data management is out of control and the behavioural marketing used by these firms can predate upon the vulnerable.
Soldato
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Another reason I don't have a TV, because stuff like this happens - love well thought out story telling such as a great film for example, or a story driven show, but TV these days is mostly an ad box with very very very few things worth watching - 1 show actually in the past 10 years is good - blue planet II - watched at friends houses - everything else has been god awful.
TV/TV license will go the way of the dinosaur soon, its out dated and ****.
Netflix/Amazon much better, show's without adverts & watch when you want - no evil ads like the OP
So yeah complain about it - because its just a more extreme form of what advertising is - invasion of the mind! lol Hate it, forced upon people.
I would say stop watching TV but at 84 I would guess there isn't much else she wants to do now............I take it she has fav shows? But if not maybe try Netflix or amazon - really good shows on that she might like, good story telling, maybe that one about queen Elizabeth etc - no ads either.
TV/TV license will go the way of the dinosaur soon, its out dated and ****.
Netflix/Amazon much better, show's without adverts & watch when you want - no evil ads like the OP
So yeah complain about it - because its just a more extreme form of what advertising is - invasion of the mind! lol Hate it, forced upon people.
I would say stop watching TV but at 84 I would guess there isn't much else she wants to do now............I take it she has fav shows? But if not maybe try Netflix or amazon - really good shows on that she might like, good story telling, maybe that one about queen Elizabeth etc - no ads either.
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Soldato
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Not to sound unreasonable, but didn't you dad have 6 grand of assets, or at least something to go towards it?
Theres a world of difference between regulating cold calling and hard selling on the phone and in person and trying to ban the advertisement of a product which can't really im or itself be said to cause any harm (unlike cigarettes or alcohol) and for which there is a demand.
I have a close relative with dementia and it's far from easy dealing with them and they do get fixated by things they see in the media but I would never expected that the world should change just to make it a bit easier to deal with someone with a mental disease.
I have a close relative with dementia and it's far from easy dealing with them and they do get fixated by things they see in the media but I would never expected that the world should change just to make it a bit easier to deal with someone with a mental disease.
I disagree. The financial regulator no longer talks about consumer detriment, it specifically talks about harm to consumers. There are too many firms, often unregulated, who history has shown to be incapable of identifying a potentially vulnerable customer and adapting their sales process accordingly. If they can't or won't be policed effectively, then the only solution remaining is to introduce a blanket ban.
Soldato
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No idea what your on about? not me, lol
Soldato
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Sorry i must have quoted the wrong post oops.
How can they identify 'potentially vulnerable' customers when placing a magazine or TV advertisement?
The problem here is a person with alzemeiers not TV advertising. A close relative of mine has vascular dementia and gets fixated by things they read in the paper or news they see on TV....
I don't demand special provisions from society as a whole to make it harder for this 'vulnerable' person close to me to see content that may adversely affect their behaviour because the 'probelem' is their mental health not the media...
Bottom line dealing with a person with acute mental health issues is very difficult and frustrating at times.
I reject the notion that a TV advertisement or magazine advertisement can be considered a 'hard sell'...... thats a term that should more appropriately be used to label certain types of home callling and phone sales.
Funeral plan advertisements in magazines and on the TV are not any more a hard sell than all the rest of the stuff advertised in the media... The service being advergised may be more taboo (not that this is necessarily a good thing) but theres nothing inherently wrong with offering a plan to play in adavance for funeral expenses.
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I didn't state that there was anything inherently wrong with the plans - I actually think that some can serve a useful purpose.
A vulnerable customer can be identified during the sales process. For example, these plans could be restricted to only be sold face to face or on the telephone. But too many financial services firms have proven themselves incapable of putting the customers' needs or circumstances before their own, and the policing of them has too often been bolting the stable door after the horse has long since gone.
So just banning them from advertising may seem like a sledgehammer to crack a nut but it is a viable option if there's no other alternative to protect the consumer. They can still be purchased, but they'd be purchased by people who are already aware of what their need is and they can then search to find a solution that works for them.
I was specifically addressing the suggestion that the adverts themselves could be 'banned' based on some people with poor mental health becoming fixated on them.
The issues of course being the tendency of some people with mental health problems to be one fixated on things not the adverts themselves.
If the product is not inherently unlawful or harmful (like cigarettes, alcohol and other drugs) then as long as any advert is truthful I don't see that there is much in the way of objective grounds to seek to ban its universal advertisement.
think you meant to quote me..
No my father had just about no assets..he had a car which we sold for 1k and used the money towards buying my mother a newer car then her 1998 Vauxhall Corsa which was fit for scrap..