I would like to see hard sell advertising for over 50 funeral plans banned.

[theone8181]

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..

Sorry to hear that, i just (wrongly) assumed that elderly people would have amassed a bit of cash.

 

[Kronos]

If anyone thinks that there will be any change in the way that this type of advertising is shown on daytime TV then they live in cloud cuckoo land. The TV companies need the advertising revenue and really do not give a monkeys and of course the advertisers have the money and therefore the power and they decide on advert content.
Politicians cannot do or rather will not do anything because for the Tories money talks and for Labour they might talk about caring for the plebs but it is little more than rhetoric.

I am really surprised that no one on this forum has blamed the old folk for being stupid enough to be taken in.

 

[Roland Butter]

How selfish.
Sorry but, it has to be said.

I'm failing to see the logic of banning every Funeral Plan advert on TV because it's a trigger for ONE Alzheimer sufferer.
What about the thousands of people who have found these adverts helpful and beneficial ?

Perhaps turn the TV to the BBC ?
Doh !

 

[antijoke]

Controversial view:

If she has Alzheimers, just tell her she has one, it's a lie yes, but will obviously cause her to not worry.

 

[FortuitousFluke]

Controversial view:

If she has Alzheimers, just tell her she has one, it's a lie yes, but will obviously cause her to not worry.

OP said he did something similar (mentioned that they had made arrangements or some such), unfortunately the disease means she forgets this almost instantly and the whole thing is re-triggered when she next sees an advert.

 

[Caracus2k]

How selfish.
Sorry but, it has to be said.

I'm failing to see the logic of banning every Funeral Plan advert on TV because it's a trigger for ONE Alzheimer sufferer.
What about the thousands of people who have found these adverts helpful and beneficial ?

Perhaps turn the TV to the BBC ?
Doh !

Pretty much my thoughts, and I have a close relation with similar issues..

Most bizzare of all though was the suggestion...

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.

So ban advertising at a time the target audience might see it?

Unfortunately I perceive this to be part of a wider problem... The idea of 'safe spaces'..... that it's societies 'duty' to molly coddle everyone in case someone gets upset, confused or annoyed by something.

I believe it to be an insidious idea to be strongly resisted.

 

[SqualidChimp]

I've known more than one of those funeral plan companies to go bust. How about, start a savings account. Put money into that, then write into your will that monies in this account should be for funeral expenses and a great big party.

 

[Sliver]

I've known more than one of those funeral plan companies to go bust. How about, start a savings account. Put money into that, then write into your will that monies in this account should be for funeral expenses and a great big party.

Shouldn't those two be mutually exclusive? You know, good taste and all.

 

[AHarvey]

I've known more than one of those funeral plan companies to go bust. How about, start a savings account. Put money into that, then write into your will that monies in this account should be for funeral expenses and a great big party.

All money towards funeral plans should be put into a protected trust so that if they go bust the money can be returned. Pretty sure that's a legal obligation for the company and companies such as Golden Charter do this.

 

[Werewolf]

Shouldn't those two be mutually exclusive? You know, good taste and all.

Not really

Depending on the wishes of the person they might want to be remembered in a happy (or as happy as possible) way, basically it's part of what a traditional Irish wake

Personally I've always debated asking to have "Always look on the bright side of life" played at my funeral (hopefully a long way off), as "that's death" seems a bit too much

 

[Heinz57]

I don't think you can just put money into a savings account and label it as "for funeral expenses".

My grandfather did this and when he went into a home, the council took it anyway, as they said it was just a normal savings account so far as they were concerned...

 

[The_Abyss]

How selfish.
Sorry but, it has to be said.

I'm failing to see the logic of banning every Funeral Plan advert on TV because it's a trigger for ONE Alzheimer sufferer.
What about the thousands of people who have found these adverts helpful and beneficial ?

Perhaps turn the TV to the BBC ?
Doh !

Except it is unlikely to be a trigger for just one person with Alzheimers. Over 800,000 people in the UK suffer from dementia, 40,000 of whom are under 65, and the numbers are growing fast.

That's hardly selfish. On the other side are people who one day become worried about paying for their funeral, don't see an advert and so type 'pay for my funeral' into Google and safely find what they're looking for.

 

[LeeUK]

Ban those over 50s cash plans and the "we buy your home" companies too. They pray on the elderly and use old hasbeens like Parkinson to advertise them as they know old folk love him.

 

[Jamauk]

I really do think there should be some regulation on the prices. Their main target market are the grieving families who are dealing with the loss of a loved one, there was something about the cost of a funeral being something like 8k and it probably is sold to them by saying about giving them a good send off which will make relatives feel guilty if they choose something cheaper.

 

[LeeUK]

Funerals need not be expensive, you can rock up at the crem with the coffin in the back of an estate car.

 

[Andrew_McP]

Over 800,000 people in the UK suffer from dementia

And many more will be on the slow, invisible slide towards incapacity. That vulnerable stage, before diagnosis and care (either family or social) are put in place, can go on for a decade or more in some cases, and is where the 'clever' daytime adverts get their claws in. Their partially impaired audience is huge.

Of course you could argue that all advertising depends upon partial impairment, whether we're talking fashion victim or tech junkie. But dementia takes this debate to a whole new level.

Until I spotted my mother's problems and began the long, grueling task of helping her to relative safety I knew dementia was a problem but I didn't really want to think about it too hard. Now, having had to learn so much and jump through so many stressful hoops, I am absolutely horrified by the way we've collectively sleepwalked into a situation where such a huge problem has so little focus. I regret being part of that problem... though I suspect the main reason it's been swept under the carpet for so long is that nobody knows what to do about it!

Tightening up the rules on advertising might be a start though.

 

[The_Abyss]

The various conditions are all challenging to accept and then manage in an effective way that reduces stress to you and to the patient. My father's into Stage 3 Parkinsons now, and on bad days it is very difficult.

 

[mootonandy]

As in the title I would like to see hard sell advertising for over 50 funeral plans banned.

My mother is 84 years old and suffers from alzheimer's disease. The problem is with all the hard sell advertising of these funeral plans every time my mother sees it she becomes obsessed with it due to worrying and repeatedly asks us about whether she has one of these plans every couple of minutes. There are weeks where all her time is destroyed by this one question as it goes on and on and on.

I understand there is a need for these funeral plans but I think the companies offering them are deliberately targeting the vulnerable like my mother with their hard sell advertising which is hard to get away from as it is on TV and in magazines which she uses a lot.

I also understand the need for companies offering these policies to advertise but it should be done discreetly and targeted at other younger family members who can decide how to proceed.

My mothers life has become a total misery worrying about these funeral plans.

Its strange to me that people think they need one anyway.