A life insurance firm with a reputation for running provocative headlines has used an image of a notorious GP serial killer to push its services, sparking outrage among the families of his victims. DeadHappy, a Leicester–based firm, ran an image of Harold Shipman alongside the line “Life insurance, because you never know who your doctor might be”. The former GP was convicted of killing 15 elderly patients in 1999 and sentenced to life imprisonment, with further inquiries suggesting he could have killed up to 250 people. One of the complainants, Tim Hill, whose great grandfather, Charles Henry Barlow, was killed by Shipman in 1995, described the advert as “utterly unconscionable” and called for “judgement” from the UK advertising watchdog the ASA.
The DeadHappy advertisement using Shipman’s face as the centrepiece appeared on Facebook to widespread disgust and anger.
Mr Hill said the use of the serial killer’s image was “despicable and unacceptable”, while the founder of an insurance broker claimed she had logged an official complaint to the Financial Conduct Authority, the City regulator, and the Advertising Standards Authority over the advert.
Mr Hill told MailOnline: “I was bewildered that anyone would agree to sign it off – everyone who must have sat around at a meeting table.
“There’s no consideration for the families. I’m not a close relative – but there are thousands of us who are affected by this, it’s not a distant memory, it’s still something people will remember.”
The design engineer added: “I find it utterly unconscionable for DeadHappy to use the image of Dr Shipman for crude jokes and cheap publicity.
“’Dark humour’ can have a place in society, but it should not be the abuse of tolerance for the sake of publicity.
“They purposefully issue this style of content with the intent of causing a backlash and promoting their business.”
Mr Hill’s mother’s grandfather, Charles Henry Barlow, died at his home on November 22, 1995 after a visit from the killer GP.
The 88-year-old former police sergeant from Hyde had received a visit from Shipman just minutes before he died, and the formal inquiry into his crimes concluded Mr Barlow had been unlawfully killed.
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Mr Hill added that, like his great grandfather, many of Shipman’s victims had been elderly, meaning that their direct relatives would likely be those targeted for life insurance adverts now, making the campaign all the more inappropriate.
He said: “As the majority of Shipman’s victims were elderly, I should imagine there are now thousands of their relatives around my age, in DeadHappy’s target audience, who could have been exposed to this advert.”
Shipman, who died by suicide in Wakefield Prison in January 2004 at the age of 57, after being handed down a life sentence four years earlier, is thought to have been one of the UK’s most prolific serial killers.
Kathryn Knowles, founder of insurance broker Cura, said “people within our industry are appalled, absolutely appalled” by the advert.
Speaking to the Telegraph, she said: “I just don’t see how anyone in their right mind could have thought this was the right thing to do. People within our industry are appalled, absolutely appalled.”
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