A discussion about business and marketing communications (or marcom).

I recently read of the marketing efforts of the exploitation of Rosa Parks memorabilia.  I’m all for marketing and increasing the bottom line of your business, but this I think has gone too far.  There are everything from T-shirts, magnets, posters, and books which are okay I guess, but here’s where the marketing goes sour.  On eBay, sellers are offering commemorative dog tags with her picture and an 8-by-10 inch photo of her in an open coffin taken after her death with the caption, “The rarest photograph of all.”  Even the cemetery where she was buried is trying to leverage her death.  They have raised prices for crypts near her grave from about $45,000 to $60,000.  “Rosa Parks has gone from civil rights symbol in life to marketing phenomenon in death.”