Maurizio Matteucci thought it would help him sell more coffins. In fact, he now finds himself spending more time catering to the lust of the living than the drab needs of the dead.
"I am submerged by requests, particularly from the United States, Germany and South Africa," he says of his sexy coffins calendar.
Enquiries are pouring in from around the globe for Matteucci, who works for the Rome-based funeral home and coffin factory Cisa.
He first came up with the idea a couple of years ago. Wanting his coffins to be "a little more enticing", he made a calendar with "virtual models," superimposing photographs of scantily clad girls on the products in his catalogue.
The idea turned out to be so well-received that he has since decided to use real models instead.
The March and April page of the 2004 edition, for instance, features a provocative blonde lifting up her T-shirt behind "Madonna urn," or coffin model 116.
For model 110, which features in the September/October page, he has chosen a brunette wrapped only in an American flag.
"Finding the models wasn't that difficult," Matteucci says. "Some of them are friends, two are American. And none of them were particularly offended, they all took it with a touch of good humor."
Matteucci says customers range from colleagues in the business to people looking for an unusual gift.
The calendar has proven a major success in the US, where it is being sold over the Internet for US$9.95 by a Web site called www.undergroundhumor.com.
"We have been selling hundreds of them, but we expect a lot more to be sold in the run up to Christmas," said Edward Bergin, author of a book called The Definite Guide to Underground Humor and owner of the Web site.
Sexy Coffins Calendar currently features in sixth place in his top 10 sellers, having recently overtaken Relax in Peace (R.I.P.) bath salts and Rigor Mortis hot sauce in the site's sales standings.
"I think it is a fantastic idea. They've been selling really well," Bergin said.
He says most of his clients are people in the funeral home business. "You need a good sense of humor to work in this kind of business," he says.
Back in Rome, Matteucci says his calendar has certainly proved to be an excellent marketing ploy and insists he has not received any criticisms yet.
"Only the other day, a priest from Canada ordered one of my coffins after seeing it featured in the calendar."
But coffin sales, Matteucci concedes, have not been particularly affected.
Moreover, Matteucci says he has been so busy catering for calendar buyers he is unsure whether the idea will be repeated.
"It has been a very tiring experience.," Matteucci says. "I have been spending so much time on it I am not even sure I'll do one next year.
"That, of course, is why I called 2004 the `ultimate edition.'"
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