It’s not only obsessive Taylor Swift fans who are picking through every minute detail and accompanying bit of promo material associated with her latest album, Midnights. The casket makers of America, it turns out, are also paying close attention to Swift’s latest offering—and finding, in the process, that the video for the record’s “Anti-Hero” includes the appearance of a burial product they’re very excited to see recognized.
Partway through the video—whose non-coffin-related aspects we covered last week—Swift emerges from a casket that the uninitiated will think little of but that real funeral fans will recognize as part of Massachusetts company Titan’s popular Orion series of corpse-holders.
Titan co-founder Josh Siegel spoke with evident pride to Boston.com about this part of the clip, saying “[Swift’s] one of the top ten famous people on the planet climbing out of our casket, so nothing comes close to this scale.”
The appearance of his company’s very own sexy, wooden baby was brought to Siegel’s attention after one of Titan’s employees “recognized the casket based on its color and sunburst design.” The company reached out to the video’s production company to confirm they had sold the product in question earlier this year for what was previously “an unidentified music video.”
Instagram fan account Taylor Swift Style highlighted the casket in a post from a few days ago, noting that anyone wanting their lifeless body to be laid to rest just like Taylor’s would need to set aside $1,199 for the honor. Titan, eager to capitalize on its newfound fame, discounted the model to all eager buyers with the code “SWIFTIE.”
Siegel says this unprecedented moment has helped bridge the gap between two groups we had no idea were at odds with one another: Casket makers and funeral directors. “They’re often not a natural ally for us, because they sell caskets and we do too,” he explained. “A few [funeral directors] that were Swifties saw this and reached out—now we’re having conversations with the handful of fans that are also potential partners of ours.”
He also said that he’s happy that the “Anti-Hero” video “brings a whole new audience who doesn’t think about this difficult topic” into his company’s world of death and gloom, seeming delighted that a bunch of kids listening to pop music will now doodle Orion series caskets on their notebooks in homage to Swift.
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