Mass. casket company featured in Taylor Swift’s latest music video

Meet the unexpected masterminds behind Swift's "Anti-Hero" prop.

Taylor Swift attends an in conversation with Taylor Swift event at the Toronto International Film Festival on Sept. 9, 2022. Swift has said “Midnights” was inspired by certain key sleepless nights — something many of her fans undoubtedly experienced as the singer-songwriter dropped seven bonus tracks and a music video just hours after the album's release. Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File

By Clara McCourt

October 23, 2022

The old Taylor can’t come to the phone right now. Why? ‘Cause she’s dead — in a Massachusetts casket.

“Anti-Hero,” the first of 13 music videos for Taylor Swift’s new visual album “Midnights,” features a familiar funeral staple: Andover-based company Titan Casket.

The straight-to-consumer casket company has worked directly with production companies for TV shows like “Severance” and “Castle Rock,” but its co-founders Scott Ginsberg and Josh Siegel were just as surprised as Swift’s fans to see their product.

“She’s one of the top ten famous people on the planet climbing out of our casket, so nothing comes close to this scale,” Siegel said.

Swift, who often grapples with the theme of death in her work, got very literal in her self-directed “Anti-Hero” music video. After the song’s bridge, the video features a 2-minute sketch imagining her own funeral starring comedians Mike Birbiglia, Mary Elizabeth Ellis, and John Early — joined by Swift herself, very much alive, hiding in a large decorated casket.

The casket makes its first appearance around 2 minutes and 13 seconds.

An employee recognized the casket based on its color and sunburst design. Titan was able to confirm with the production company — they had made the sale in July for an unidentified music video.

“The casket is part of the Orion series, our most popular item. It’s a very classic casket and she picked a copper color, which is a very traditional color in the funeral industry,” Siegel said.

Taylor Swift’s fans, better known as Swifties, also took notice. Taylor Swift Style, a popular blog that normally documents the singer’s fashion, also identified the casket to its 103,000 Instagram followers.

“Not the content you expected, is it?” the account wrote in an Instagram caption.

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Fans responded in droves, and Titan Casket even joined in the fun, offering a “Swiftie discount” — $50.13 off any casket (13 is Swift’s signature number, which often makes appearances in surprise releases).

Their most surprising shoutout? Ironically, funeral directors.

“They’re often not a natural ally for us, because they sell caskets and we do too,” Siegel said. “A few 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.”

Titan Casket hopes to spread its message of expanding options for grieving families to a new audience.

“Our whole mission is to raise awareness and education in the funeral industry,” Siegel said. ”We think [the music video] brings a whole new audience who doesn’t think about this difficult topic.”