Huggable urns – great product or gross idea?
Ruth Mortimer is Marketing Week’s associate editor and a prolific blogger. She won a PPA Award for her forthright and insightful columns on marketing.
Huggable urns. Oh my god.
There are few products that surprise the hard hacks on the Marketing Week editorial team. Over the years, we’ve seen many brands and products launched that defy logic, sense or are simply funny. We receive press releases inviting us to watch an attempt to break the world laminating record or attend the amazing British Asparagus Festival. So we are used to the world of weird.
Back to huggable urns, something we discovered by press release that makes the whole team feel a little…well, odd.
A huggable urn is a teddy bear which contains the ashes of a loved one. The idea, according to online urn store LegendURN owner Joost Kramer is as follows: “People who really suffer a lot of pain after the death of a loved one like to touch and hold something that belonged to their departed; this offers some consolation.
The huggable urn makes this possible. It is not just for adults, but especially forchildren. They often deal with sorrow differently. They are comforted by something to hug, but it is often even more effective if they know their dear departed is ‘close.’
It is also a big advantage that you can take the huggable [urn] everywhere with you. You don’t do that with a normal urn.”
I’m all for anything that helps kids deal with the horrible fact of life that is death, but I’m not sure taking your ashes everywhere with you is a great idea. Other LegendURN products include a balloon urn for baby ashes, wearable ashes in necklace form or ashes art (if you want to store the remains of your loved one in the model of a horse).
So maybe I’m missing the appeal of the huggable urns. Let me know your thoughts – great product or gross idea?
