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A New Zealand business owner is working to lighten the mood, at funerals. I’m Brian Banmiller on Business.

Ross Hall owns a business in Auckland called dying art. It specializes in custom made colorful coffins, designed to make your final get together a memorable one. Hall says he dreamed up the idea about fifteen years ago when he was writing his will and contemplating his own funeral. He decided it wouldn’t be like everyone else’s so he wrote in his will that his coffin was to be a red box with flames painted on it. Slowly his idea grew and after approaching funeral directors, it has taken off. So far, he has created coffins that look like a sailboat, a firetruck, a bar of chocolate and lego bricks. He has designed coffins covered in fake jewels, one inspired by the movie “the matrix” and others that depict someone’s favorite place. Depending on the design the speciality coffins go for between twenty-one and fifty-four hundred dollars. His latest creation was for his brother, his special design, a cream donut. You’re spending eternity in this box, might as well enjoy it. Brian Banmiller, CBS News.

About Brian

CBS News Radio national business journalist Brian Banmiller has spent more than 40 years in the news industry, covering business, politics and the economy on television, radio and in print. Currently, his “Banmiller on Business” reports are delivered to an audience of millions nationwide.