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It seemed a good idea at the time ...

By Johanna Gibson, David Pearce, Jeremy Phillips and Ilanah Simon.

There's always something exciting stirring down under, says the IPKat -- and how! The BBC reports that a New Zealand pizza chain has withdrawn a Halloween promotion that featured skeleton animations of three dead celebrities dancing on graves. The advertisement, for Hell Pizza, showed animated versions of Sir Edmund Hillary, actor Heath Ledger and the Queen Mother dancing to Michael Jackson's song 'Thriller'.

The family of Mount Everest conqueror Sir Edmund, who died in January, said the ad was in "extremely poor taste". Nothing however has been said concerning the taste of the pizza.

Hell's Pizza apologised and said it did not mean to cause offence. Said a spokesman for the company: "The idea of Sir Ed being there was intended to be a light-hearted remembrance".

The IPKat is astonished at the sheer cheek of the pizza company and feels that the ads could have been just as effective if generic likenesses had been substituted for the dead celebs. Merpel says, this just goes to show how important it is for celebrities to plan for the posthumous exploitation of their reputations. Sir Ed, the Queen Ma and Heath Ledger could have registered their names and likenesses as trade marks for pizzas and restaurants if they so desired.

You can watch Sir Ed dancing here
The Cat Who Liked Pizza here
Pizza from hell: the recipe here

Full post as published by IPKat on November 03, 2008 (boomark / email).