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Live Streaming Funerals

10/18/2019

34 Comments

 
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by David Hagenbuch, founder of Mindful Marketing & author of Honorable Influence

What will you watch on TV tonight?  Maybe you’ll catch a movie on cable or stream season five of your favorite sitcom.  Or, maybe you’ll tune-in to Uncle Walter’s wake.  That’s right:  Some funeral homes now make it possible for mourners to stay home, thanks to live streaming of memorial services.
 
Live streaming has been around for more than 20 years, but it’s more recently that funeral homes have entered the virtual realm.  Some say the delay is due to the funeral industry being more conservative than most.  It also might be because those most in-tune with the newer technology tend to be the Netflix-watching younger generations, who probably aren’t the biggest drivers of demand for funeral services.
 
Every year in the United States, around 19,000 funeral directors conduct approximately 2.4 million memorial services, yet some estimate as few as 20% of funeral homes offer streaming services.  But, why does anyone want to watch the memorialization of someone they knew online?
 
The main reason is simple logistics.  As people find new jobs or move for other reasons, family members and friends are “increasingly scattered around the country—and the world,” making it hard to travel to far-away cities and towns for funerals.  Also, some people have health conditions or other constraints that make travel very difficult, if not impossible.
 
Our family appreciated live streaming firsthand recently, not for a funeral but for our son’s orchestra concert.  Given that he’s enrolled in college over 10 hours from home, it’s not possible for us to attend most performances, but we were able to watch the first concert of the fall in real-time, thanks to the school live streaming the event.
 
Still, a funeral is very different than a concert, a sports contest, or other audience-driven entertainment.  Should such a somber event be so widely shared?  Is it disrespectful to ‘digitize the deceased?’
 
Whether it’s a wedding or a wake, almost anything can be filmed tastelessly or tactfully.  Small ceiling-mounted cameras and wireless technology are some of the ways that videoing can happen unobtrusively.  Plus, in the age of social media and selfies, most people are pretty used to cameras and picture-taking.

Of course, a primary consideration in deciding whether to live stream a funeral should be the final wishes of the departed—Did they want/not want their last remembrances broadcast?  Short of any such directive, the decision lies with loved ones, who, in reality, are the ones the memorial service is truly for.     
 
For family members and/or close friends of the deceased, a funeral service is a very important part of the grieving process.  They’re the ones dealing most with shock, grief, and worry.  They also probably want to honor the memory of someone about whom they cared deeply.  Key questions, then, are:  What brings loved ones comfort and what helps them commemorate?
 
The most likely answer is other people.  When tragedy strikes or there’s an occasion to celebrate, we usually want to be with others.  It’s at those times that we really appreciate the presence of people.   
 
That need for social support reminds me of a funeral I attended last March.  A dear friend of mine, with whom I had served on a church leadership team, played basketball and softball, and socialized with our spouses, passed away suddenly at age 58.  I was shocked to hear the news and imagined that his wife and two children in their twenties were devastated.
 
Our careers had taken us to different parts of the state, but I wanted to attend his memorial service, even though it was on a weekday and about two hours away.  I drove to the church and reflected on my friends’ impactful life during what was a very moving service.  I also spoke briefly with his children and wife, giving her a hug and telling her how much I had appreciated her husband.
 

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A couple of months later, I received a handwritten note from her in which she said how happy she was that I was able to come to the service and how much it meant to see an old friend from a special time in their lives.  I had barely spoken with her at the funeral, so it seemed that just my being there made a big difference for her.
 
That experience makes me wonder whether live streaming funerals keeps people from being present at times when their presence is needed most?  I doubt there’s data to shed light on that question, so I’ll try to answer it based on the reading I’ve done in preparation for this piece.
 
Journalists who have spoken with funeral directors suggest that live streams are most important to those who are unable to attend funerals because of factors like distance, cost, and health issues.  No one mentions people who could attend services in person, choosing to watch live streams instead.
 
Such decision-making also resonates with my own experience.  When my friend passed away suddenly, I really wanted to be there, and thankfully I was able to.  I’m not sure if his memorial service was live streamed, but even if it was, my choice would not have changed.  I suspect most people feel similarly—For someone important to them, they would like to be there in person, if at all possible.
 
Live streaming funerals is almost certainly a win-win:  The opportunity to watch from afar doesn’t dissuade people from attending but gives those who can’t travel the ability to also experience a very meaningful moment.  Even when it involves death, digital technology can deliver “Mindful Marketing.”


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Kidfluencers

10/5/2019

21 Comments

 
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by David Hagenbuch, founder of Mindful Marketing & author of Honorable Influence

Do you remember doing ‘connect the dots’ as a kid?  You probably liked seeing a picture appear as you drew lines from one number to the next.  Today’s online influencer marketing makes it difficult even for adults to connect the dots between product users and corporate sponsors.  Imagine how hard it is for kids, who some companies intentionally target, to put together a picture of that influence. 
 
Influencer marketing, or influence marketing, “is a form of social media marketing involving endorsements and product placements from influencers, people and organizations who possess an expert level of knowledge and/or social influence in their respective fields.”
 
Although influencer marketing has been around for ages with celebrities (movie stars, TV personalities, famous athletes, etc.) endorsing products, it’s different now because social media have democratized the process.  Now anyone with a significant following on Instagram or other popular platform can become a paid product ambassador.
 
One of the most popular influencers is a 7-year old named Ryan Kaji who has an astounding 32.3 billion views on his YouTube channel Ryan Toy Review.  His 21.7 million subscribers ‘tune in’ to watch him unpack and play with a wide variety of toys provided by sponsors such as Hasbro and Walmart.

However, Ryan’s YouTube channel is just part of his ever-expanding commercial influence.  His parents also record Ryan and his younger siblings’ visits to commercial tourist attractions, like Legoland California, for Ryan’s Family Review.  In addition, Ryan stars in a Nickelodeon cable and online series called Ryan’s Mystery Playdate.  Other signs of his great popularity  are branded products, including a “a Ryan Kaji action figure, T-shirts and a plastic dinnerware set.”


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Ryan Kaji is far from the only “Kidfluencer”; however, and he’s not close to the youngest.  For instance, a four-year old named Samia has over 203,000 YouTube subscribers and 143,000 followers on Instagram, where she attracts paid promotions from HomeStyle Harvest chicken nuggets and Crayola, among other brands.
 
Then there’s Kyle Fisher’s two-year-old identical twins, Taytum and Oakley, who have over 2 million Instagram followers.  Advertisers like Mattel pay between $10,000 and $20,000 to sponsor a single post featuring Fisher’s daughters.
 
Of course, children have long been cast in commercials, which many of us older adults remember when we were kids.  Who can forget young actor Tommy Okon asking Pittsburgh Steeler Mean Joe Greene, “Do you want my Coke?”   There are some important differences, however, with today’s Kidfluencers.
 
First, the Internet is still like the ‘Wild West’ in terms ‘lawlessness.’  Thanks to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), advertisers on television and radio must abide by rules that separate program content (the show) from commercial content (the ads) and that limit a character’s or program host’s use of promotions or product placement, but the Internet has no such restrictions.
 
So, there’s not much to stop the families of Kidfluencers from blurring the lines between programs and ads.  Unlike when we watch traditional television that has distinct commercial breaks, online media often blend the two together such that influencers like Ryan Kaji are playing with and promoting sponsored products at the same time.
 
That blending leads to the second issue, mentioned above.  Even adults can have a hard time distinguishing an unbiased product user from a paid endorser.  Kids often have no concept that another child might only be playing with a toy online because his/her family received it for free or because they’re being paid to promote the product.
 
Children tend to take what they see and hear at face value.  They’re unfamiliar with the notion of ulterior motives.  As a result, kids can be easily misled.
 
I gained a sense of this vulnerability while teaching classes in Advertising Ethics for about a decade.  Each year I was able to have my college students spend a little time talking with much younger students (sometimes just 4-6 years old) about advertising.  Although the kindergarten-age kids could recognize almost any consumer-products brand from its logo, very few could explain what advertising was or why we had it.
 
Josh Golin, the executive director of the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, affirmed those observations by saying that it’s not until they’re 8 or 9 years old that most children recognize advertising.  Similarly, in a complaint it filed against Ryan Toy Review, the nonprofit organization Truth in Advertising contended that preschoolers can’t differentiate an unbiased product review from a commercial.
 
Deception of young consumers isn’t the only potential ethical issue involving Kidfluencers.  There’s the question of whether it’s right for parents to make their children promote products and whether such promotion constitutes work that might be subject to child labor laws.
 
But, back to the original issue:  Although, Kidfluencers are very effective at ‘moving product,’ the deception used to accomplish those ends plays on the inexperience of some of society’s most vulnerable consumers--children.  So, connecting the dots, the use of kids to influence the consumer behavior of other kids makes a picture of “Single-Minded Marketing.”
 

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