Coffins designed after the likes of Mario, Luigi, and Peach are being advertised on social media, complete with interchangeable logos.
Funerals are an inherently dour affair, which is probably why some people try to emphasise the ‘fun’ part when planning their own funeral, from being buried dressed as Batman to having their ashes turned into cannonballs.
Even so, most people would likely find it a bit jarring if they turned up to a funeral that, say, featured a bright red coffin with a Super Mario logo stuck to it.
A funeral home in Brazil is now offering exactly that, with a new range of Mario themed coffins; ones we can safely assume Nintendo hasn’t approved of.
The funeral home in question is Bignotto, which bills itself as ‘the largest manufacturer of urns in Brazil’ and according to its website, has been in business for over 60 years.
Recently, it posted a pair of short videos to its Instagram page to highlight its new Super Mario range of red, pink, and green coffins, complete with interchangeable logos that represent Mario, Luigi, Peach, Yoshi, and Toad.
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To Bignotto’s credit, the coffins look very well made, although there’s no mention of pricing in the videos or on the website (in fact, the Mario coffins have yet to be added to Bignotto’s catalogue).
Here in the UK, even a cheap coffin will cost you a few hundred pounds and we can only imagine these Mario themed ones will be significantly dearer.
Themed coffins are more common than you might think and there have been far wackier examples in the past, with Poppy’s Funerals selling coffins shaped like fish and mobile phones.
According to Portuguese website Voxel, Bignotto has dabbled in pop culture themed coffins before, such as ones based on Barbie and The Fairly Odd Parents, although it’s not clear what happens when companies find out their trademarks are being infringed on like this.
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Nintendo is famously protective of its properties, to the point where it doesn’t even like people making free fan games, so it could very well take umbrage with Bignotto selling its own Mario themed products.
Just a couple of years ago, Nintendo sued a Costa Rican supermarket because it just so happened to be named Super Mario. It otherwise had no relation to Nintendo’s franchise, and it just seemed to be a coincedence.
In that instance, though, the lawsuit ended in the supermarket’s favour since Nintendo never registered a trademark for ‘the sale of groceries.’ Combined with how the supermarket is technically called ‘Supermarket Mario’, Nintendo had to endure a rare loss.
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