A computer games firm has been accused of pushing back the frontiers of bad taste after it announced that it was seeking to advertise its latest title on gravestones.
Acclaim Entertainment said yesterday that it would pay relatives of the recently bereaved in return for placing small billboards on headstones, and that the offer might "particularly interest poorer families".
The Church of England said that there was no way it would allow any of its graveyards to be used in such a fashion. A spokesman said: "There was enough fuss with plastic flowers in churchyards."
A spokeswoman for the company, which bills the game as a "journey to the Deathside", said: "It's a dark, gory type of game and we thought it was appropriate to raise advertising to a new level."
The firm insisted that it was a genuine offer and claimed that the marketing ideas for its new PlayStation 2 game, ShadowMan 2, were valid.
Acclaim Entertainment went on to claim that "advertising on gravestones falls outside of codes of conduct and regulations of any formal advertising bodies".
However, Matthew Carrington, chairman of the Outdoor Advertising Association, said that any attempt to advertise on headstones would require planning permission from local authorities whether the land was public or private.
Mr Carrington said: "It is illegal to put any advertising up outdoors without planning permission ... and of course there could be issues of desecration."
He said the concept of advertising in graveyards was "clearly objectionable" but said he was not surprised as advertising firms were continually "upping the ante to shock". He added that he thought it unlikely that the firm would get approval for its plan.
Sony, which makes the PlayStation 2 consoles, said it would not comment on the advertising tactics of third parties who produce games for them under licence. A spokeswoman rejected suggestions that Sony was responsible for creating an "edgy" advertising culture around its console which may have galvanised Acclaim Entertainment's marketing tactics.
On the ShadowMan 2 website, the game is described as incorporating "fierce and gruesome" fighting. It involves users playing a New York policeman who has a "living dead" alter ago who is seeking a confrontation with the devil. He has magic and voodoo weapons to help him.
A London spokesman for Acclaim Entertainment, which is based in New York, said that was appreciated that people may find its advertising offer offensive but that others might see it as a good way of procuring "a subsidy to burial costs to give their loved one a good send-off". He rejected the suggestion it was a cynical media stunt.
No one has yet to volunteer and the firm said payments would be calculated with regard to the exposure potential of any particular headstone.