Does Bad Taste Sell?

July 5th, 2007

Ever think, “If only I could just bring myself to do it, I know I could make money with this ultra-cheesy idea”?

Well, it just got a lot easier to make that leap to real profitability. However cheesy your idea is, you can still hold your head high at cocktail parties. Now, if anyone asks, “How could you?” point them to this site, so they can see how really moral and uplifting your ideas are in comparison.

The people behind Huggable Urns take death — the death of someone you love — and enrich it (and themselves) with all the fine delicateness and sensitivity of the Home Shopping Network.

For only $90, you can turn your memory of Mom, Dad, brother, sister, son, daughter, wife, husband, or anyone you once held dear, into a trailer-trash conversation piece that would make Wal-Mart blush.

The idea is simple: you buy a cheap polyester teddy bear, zip it open, and stuff Dad’s ashes inside. You can then clutch this ursine grotesque to your breast, or just prop it up on the sofa and watch TV with “Dad,” just like the good old days.

Their motto — “Get me out of the closet!!!!” — has jarring homosexual overtones, but conveys (sort of) the idea behind the company: get those ashes out into the open where you can hold them tight.

Suppose you have two dead relatives and you want to tell them apart? Huggable Urns makes it easy to personalize Mom and Dad and make them “one of a kind” with little mottos and sayings, such as “Hold Me” and “Eternal Love.”

Jaw dropped yet? Wait, there’s more! These huggable bears cost $90 each, but you can easily up the price with ghoulish accessories.

Did Mom die of breast cancer? Well then, how about a “cancer survivor” T-shirt (Seriously, see photo!) for the little bear-coffin? You can also buy angel’s wings, or, if your son died in Iraq, how about a military theme? And if all of this is just too tame, you can purchase a private design consultation and get your bear fitted out exactly the way you want — no perversion is forbidden when there’s a buck to be made.

So take that cheesy idea and go for it! Huggable Urns make journalism for hire, link drones, and even corporate marketing seem pretty innocuous by comparison.

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