LONDON — In one advertisement, a sun-kissed couple laugh and chase each other on a sandy beach. But the beachgoers are holding not surfboards, but wooden coffins.

The ad offers a “one-way” trip with “roasting temperatures” for 1,195 pounds, or about $1,570. But this is for cremation, not vacation.

It is the work of a company called Beyond, which offers funeral price comparisons. It says it deliberately made the edgy ads in an effort to start a national conversation about death and burial costs.

But when it comes to the business of burying or cremating people, the company learned, it can push the envelope only so far.