Death in advertising: the last taboo?

Abstract

Portrayals of death in advertising for non-death related products are exceedingly rare, in sharp contrast to numerous death portrayals in other media sources such as movies and TV programs. Additionally, advertising increasingly depicts other controversial topics, such as sex and violence, but not death. Is death the last taboo in advertising? This qualitative study uses a grounded theory approach to explore death as a taboo topic in advertising through in-depth interviews with twenty consumers—purposively chosen so that half of the participants were aged in their 20 s and half were older than 65. Participants were shown six current, non-shocking ads containing death portrayals to understand how consumers think and feel about death portrayals in advertising. Differences in consumer interpretations based on age emerged. In addition, ad execution factors that helped consumers accept death portrayals included the use of humor, non-human characters, unrealistic situations, and evocative music.

Keywords:

• taboo
• advertising in society
• age differences
• ad executions