FCA whacks DeadHappy over 'disgusting' Shipman ad

The Financial Conduct Authority has come down like a ton of bricks on life insurance firm DeadHappy – which has sparked outrage by featuring serial killer Harold Shipman in its latest ad campaign – ruling that all future activity must be cleared.

Initially the firm defended the ad, which featured Shipman along with the tagline: “Life Insurance. Because you never know who your doctor might be”, insisting it wanted to “make people stop and think”.

Shipman was convicted in January 2000 of murdering 15 elderly patients in his care but was suspected of a further 250 deaths, which have never been proved. He committed suicide during his life sentence in Wakefield Prison in 2004.

Following a major backlash against the social media campaign, including from relatives of Shipman’s victims and Hyde MP Jonathan Reynolds branding the ad”disgusting”, DeadHappy scrapped the activity. The Advertising Standards Authority said it has received more than 50 complaints.

In a statement, the firm’s founder Andy Knott said: “We are called DeadHappy and our strapline is ‘Life insurance to die for’ so we are aware of the provocative and to some the very shocking nature of our brand.

“But being provocative is different to being offensive and it is of course never our intention to offend or upset people. It is our intention to make people stop and think. If however you have been personally distressed by this advert we do sincerely apologise.”

The ASA said it was reviewing the complaints.

However, the FSA has already intervened, ruling that, effective from January 31, the company “must cease to communicate any further financial promotions that have not received prior approval”.

This means future ads will need to be cleared by Shepherds Friendly, which provides insurance for DeadHappy.

In response to the move, DeadHappy’s Knott said: “In our attempt to be provocative and make people really stop and think about their need for life insurance, we have made a mistake and for this we apologise. We will now go away and immediately review all of our current and future marketing campaigns to ensure we learn from this mistake.”

Shepherds Friendly, which provides insurance cover to the firm, said: “Upon being made aware of the advert, we immediately expressed our view to Dead Happy that it was distasteful and inappropriate and asked them to remove it. We are committed to our values and this does not align with them.

“Following the FCA’s restriction on DeadHappy’s activities, we are ensuring those requirements are complied with. In addition we have given our feedback to Dead Happy regarding our expectations of their conduct in the future.”

This is not the first time the financial services firm has had a run in with the authorities. In 2019, the ASA banned an ad that showed a man leaning his head against a wall alongside the strapline “life insurance to die for”. The watchdog ruled that the activity trivialised suicide and depression.