Any startup would die for the chance to have their product show up in a Taylor Swift music video. That’s just life for Titan Casket.
The Bellevue, Wash., and Massachusetts-based direct-to-consumer casket company is feeling a bit of a viral pep in its step after one of its caskets served as a prop for the pop star in her new video “Anti-Hero.” The video, for a song off the new album “Midnights,” was released on Friday and has 27 million views.
Midway through the 5-minute video there’s a 2-minute mini-movie of a funeral scene in which Swift is inside an Orion Series casket from Titan, a product that sells on the Titan website for $1,199 and is described like so:
“With its meticulous craftsmanship, vivid high-gloss finish, and excellent price point, the Titan Orion Series steel casket is our most popular model. This elegant coffin is for sale in more than 20 colors and comes standard with a rubber gasket and locking mechanism.“
Founded in 2016 by longtime casket manufacturer and supplier Scott Ginsberg, who serves as CEO, Titan also includes a husband-and-wife co-founding team in Bellevue, Wash. COO Josh Siegel previously spent more than eight years at Amazon and was chief product officer at cosmetic treatment review startup RealSelf. Titan President Liz Siegel previously ran her own baby products company.
Titan raised $3.5 million in new funding in June.
“There are no brands in the casket space,” Josh Siegel said in comments emailed to GeekWire. “So when a film or music video producer wants to procure a casket for a production or as a prop, they will search online for casket companies and find us.”
That’s just what happened in this case. Siegel said months after providing a casket and signing a release, the video was released to much fanfare on Friday and a Titan employee saw it and the product.
A fashion blog called Taylor Swift Style made note of the casket and linked to the product web page on Titan’s site. An Instagram post has more than 25,000 likes and a tweet about it got some traction, too.
Swift also tweeted an image of herself in the casket with the actors who portray her family in the funeral scene.
“She has a very active fan base,” Siegel said.
Sales aren’t exactly taking off — caskets are not much of an impulse purchase.
But Siegel views all of the attention as a great way to educate people about the Federal Trade Commission’s “Funeral Rule,” which he and other non-funeral home professionals have been lobbying to strengthen. They want funeral homes to be required to provide information on their websites about third-party vendors — such as Titan — and how those vendors typically charge much less for items such as caskets.
“Our mission is to fight for consumer rights, and this video was released the day after we successfully presented to the FTC about ways to modernize the rules that govern the industry,” Siegel said.
