Another coping mechanism is to imagine what they would be like had they lived. Famed pop culture commentator Chuck Klosterman wrote a piece for Spin titled “What If Kurt Cobain Didn’t Die?” for the issue commemorating the 10th anniversary of the Nirvana frontman’s death in 2004. The article posits what the next 10 years would have been like for Cobain and his career. Late last year, Sachs Media Group created a series of photos positing what stars including Lennon, Cobain, and Janis Joplin would look like were they alive today. The group also enlisted pop culture experts to speculate about how the stars’ careers would have gone had their lives not been cut short.

Conspiracy theories about these stars’ deaths are also prevalent, with some choosing to explain the suicides of people like Cobain and Monroe through theories that they didn’t really kill themselves but were in fact murdered by enemies who used suicide as a cover-up. Another frequent conspiracy theory is that the person is still actually alive but living in hiding, an explanation that’s been popular for Tupac and Elvis and was played up by the Bavaria ad.

Whether you approve of such coping mechanisms and general curiosity about dead pop culture icons, the Bavaria ad is a particularly offensive version of the phenomena, blatantly seeking to profit from insulting portrayals of beloved stars.

The ad has been covered by several publications, perhaps gaining more attention than Bavaria intended it to, given that it’s not in English. As Rolling Stone pointed out, the company had better get its lawyers ready to hear from the estates of the stars portrayed in the commercial. Many have also added that the idea of fruit-flavored beer is pretty disgusting.

More From Wall St. Cheat Sheet:

• It’s Official: Eminem, Skrillex, Lorde to Headline Lollapalooza
• Free Speech, Lewd Cheerleaders, and a Female Finger: M.I.A.’s Battle With the NFL
• Sorry, Kurt Cobain Vultures: Craiglist Ad Was All a Sub Pop Prank

Follow Jacqueline on Twitter @Jacqui_WSCS