Co-op Funeralcare campaign highlights the brutal beauty of life and death
The campaign from VCCP marks a step-change in communication for the sector.
Nicola Kemp
Editorial Director CreativebriefWhen you think of how to be a modern challenger brand, Funeralcare might not be the first category that comes to mind.
Yet Co-op Funeralcare’s new integrated campaign ‘1 Brilliant Life’, created by VCCP, successfully underlines the power of defying category conventions.
In place of tip-toeing around the sharp edges of life and death, the brand has instead created a campaign that successfully walks the tightrope of being uplifting, hopeful and truthful about the reality of a life well lived.
At the heart of the campaign is a 60 second film entitled ‘1 Brilliant Life’ which brings to life the story of a woman called Iris, with real images and footage.
Numbers are used as the anchors to mark this woman’s life story: 1 woman, 85 years, 43 road trips, 0 green fingers.
Without feeling cloying, the film successfully invites introspection (how would you measure your life? Are you counting the right things?) while celebrating a life well-lived.
The integrated campaign introduces the brand promise that ‘however you choose to say goodbye, we help you own it’. From traditional services to personal celebrations of life, Co-op Funeralcare ensures every goodbye reflects the life it honours.
This is the first campaign for Co-op Funeralcare under the ‘Owned By You. Right By You.’ brand platform created by VCCP in 2024. Building on Co-op’s wider mission to reconnect people with the values of co-operation and membership, the work brings the funeral arm of the business into the same creative world as its food and masterbrand communications.
Funeralcare can often be viewed as a more difficult sector to advertise but we saw an opportunity to speak truthfully and beautifully about what it means to live and how we might want to say goodbye.
Rachel Morris, Creative Director at VCCP
The film was directed by Simon Ratigan through Rogue Films, in collaboration with VCCP’s global content creation studio Girl&Bear.
Ayshea Elliott, Head of Marketing at Co-op Funeralcare, explained: "This campaign is all about helping to showcase that choice is at the heart of every funeral. ‘However you choose to say goodbye, we help you own it’ aims to reflect Co-op Funeralcare’s commitment to ensuring that every funeral wish is fulfilled, whether it’s a more traditional service or a vibrant, personalised farewell, whilst also providing bereaved families with the support they need.”
Rachel Morris, Creative Director at VCCP, added: "We’re incredibly proud of this work. Funeralcare can often be viewed as a more difficult sector to advertise but we saw an opportunity to speak truthfully and beautifully about what it means to live and how we might want to say goodbye. ‘1 Brilliant Life’ is a celebration and Co-op Funeralcare is the perfect partner to help people own that moment in a way that’s right for them."
‘1 Brilliant Life’ will run across TV, cinema, radio and digital platforms. Media planning and buying is led by Dentsu, with additional support from ITG on retail and local production.
This campaign underlines the power of telling the truth in advertising. In the midst of a wider cultural narrative in which experiences of grief and death remain unspoken, this work successfully breathes the oxygen of honesty into an often conservative category. Successfully challenging category norms and creating the space for more honest conversations about life and death.