I Slept in Taylor Swift’s Casket and Did Not Rest in Peace

There’s one thing you have to find out about me: I’m an enormous Taylor Swift fan. So a lot in order that I’ve efficiently weaseled my means into remodeling that curiosity into content material for Gizmodo. It’s additionally essential for me to level out that I get a number of pitches right here at Gizmodo—that’s not a flex, that’s only a reality. With that stated, I used to be perusing my e-mail simply final week when a topic line caught my eye: “My casket was featured in Taylor Swift’s funeral-themed music video.” Color me intrigued.

For some context, Taylor Swift launched her hotly anticipated tenth studio album Midnights alongside the music video for her lead single titled “Anti-Hero.” The observe options the singer-songwriter self-loathing her means by her insecurities in the course of the verses and choruses, however the bridge contains a vignette of considered one of Swift’s greatest fears. “I have this dream my daughter-in-law kills me for the money / She thinks I left them in the will,” Swift croons. The music video—which was written and directed by Swift herself—takes this imagery fairly actually by depicting Swift’s funeral.

Swift’s copper-colored coffin is from Titan Casket, a Seattle-based firm that prides itself on direct-to-consumer caskets and is the corporate behind the aforementioned e-mail that appeared in my inbox. The firm instructed me that they didn’t search me out particularly—regardless of being the resident Swiftie on employees right here at Gizmodo—however emailed me randomly throughout a spherical of press after Swift’s music video was launched. Gizmodo is not any stranger to product critiques, however we’ve by no means reviewed a casket. Regardless, this felt like a chance I couldn’t go up. So I requested Titan Casket if they’d be prepared to ship me a casket—they fortunately obliged.

Titan Casket’s enterprise mannequin is one predicated on a groundbreaking piece of laws from the Federal Trade Commission. The Funeral Rule was first enacted in 1984 and requires funeral houses to just accept preparations from outdoors distributors, stopping houses from successfully monopolizing the business. What meaning is that whereas you should purchase a casket immediately from a funeral house, you may choose to purchase a less expensive one from a supplier like Titan Casket with no pushback from the house internet hosting the viewing. The Orion Series from Titan Casket will run you $1,200, and Titan Casket CEO Scott Ginsberg says that funeral suppliers will usually cost no less than double that. After calling just a few funeral houses across the New York City space, the bottom competing worth I may discover was round $5,000.

Ginsberg introduced the casket to G/O Media headquarters in Midtown Manhattan this week so we may attempt it out. I used to be gunning for the copper Orion Series casket just like the one within the “Anti-Hero” music video, however resulting from elevated demand following the discharge, Gizmodo scored a vivid pink Orion as a substitute. During the supply, I discovered that caskets have much more bells and whistles than I initially thought.

Ginsberg gave me a fast tutorial on the way to use the casket, starting with the way to unlock it. Yes, caskets can lock in the event you weren’t conscious (I wasn’t). The casket has an extended bolt that runs alongside the size of it that catches onto small anchors hooked up to the facet reverse the hinges. An Allen wrench will unlock it with a little bit elbow grease by way of a small gap on the foot finish that’s coated with a bolt. Once unlocked, the Orion opens as much as a silky white inside that features a pillow and a platform {that a} corpse can relaxation on—this platform will be raised and lowered relying on the scale of the physique with the identical Allen key that unlocks it. The casket additionally has extremely sturdy hinges to assist every of the 2 lids when they’re upright. For viewing, the hinges should be pushed inward with a view to preserve the lid in its opened place and pulled outward to shut the casket. If the hinges aren’t correctly dealt with, they’ll break, which Ginsberg instructed me is one thing that casket novices usually overlook.

To check the effectiveness of the Orion, I did what any good casket dweller ought to do—I took a nap. Today I forwent my afternoon espresso for a 30-minute cat nap within the casket. The casket was initially fairly uncomfortable, which is sensible as a result of, effectively, its for lifeless individuals, however I did discover myself having fun with the comfortable match. All that stated, I did discover myself capable of fall asleep for a short second.

So how did Titan Casket get entangled with Taylor Swift’s tenth studio album?

“We had sold this exact casket to a production company back in July for a music video, and we had no idea what that was for. We often sell caskets to entertainment or film companies just because we’re online and we’re a brand in a brand-less space,” stated Titan Casket COO and co-founder Joshua Siegel. “One of our employees had woken up early to watch the [‘Anti-Hero’] video and seen that there was a casket that looked like ours.”

Siegel stated that Titan Casket has by no means bought considered one of its merchandise to a manufacturing that concerned somebody as large as Swift and the small enterprise was ecstatic over the publicity. “This brand is fighting for consumer rights and trying to get families options, so it was this nice moment of validation,” Siegel defined. During the week earlier than the video premiered, Siegel stated that Titan Casket stood earlier than the Federal Trade Commission, asking them to modernize the Funeral Rule by requiring funeral houses to submit casket costs on-line. The FTC voted unanimously to replace the regulation.

Swift’s viewers devoured her new album Midnights, which broke sales, charts, and streaming records throughout the board—the ‘Anti-Hero’ music video alone has 47 million views on the time of writing this text. Titan Casket’s publicity to this whopping variety of eyeballs can be a present to any small enterprise, however Titan Casket’s mission isn’t simply to promote a product, it’s to attach households mourning a beloved one to a significant useful resource that might save them 1000’s of {dollars} throughout an extremely emotionally exhausting time. In a world with an growing variety of direct-to-consumer startups like Warby Parker, Dollar Shave Club, and Tuft & Needle which are circumventing the intermediary to save cash, Titan Casket is circumventing the intermediary to save lots of stress, and saving individuals cash within the course of.