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Why is this Massachusetts company making stuffed toy coffins?
The Methuen casket company's idea is to make talking about death more fun — or at least more common.
Meet Mort. He’s a one-pound, plush casket with a smiley face and large round eyes.
In his prior life, Mort was a mortician known for his sass, wisdom and charm. He is now the social media manager for Titan Caskets, and is being sold for $19.99.
Titan Caskets is a casket company based in Methuen. It bills itself as a direct-to-consumer company; in other words, it sells coffins directly to customers, without using a funeral home as a middleman.
Titan is known for its attention-grabbing, clever marketing. Its caskets have even appeared in a Taylor Swift music video. Mort is the latest addition to the company.
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“I think a big part of what we do is try to make conversations around death and end-of-life and funeral planning OK to have,” said Joshua Siegel, co-founder of Titan Casket, in an interview with Boston.com.
While building Titan Casket, Siegel says he often comes across families who haven’t planned for death in advance. Often, he said, when no planning is made, the funeral and the casket can become expensive, and many leave without having the desired experience.
Siegel says taking a few minutes to plan final wishes can save loved ones pain and expense.
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“We think everyone should be having these conversations,” said Siegel. “That is the idea behind all of the marketing we do.”
Mort is for their new customers. “He’s out here wanting people to have these conversations,” said Siegel. “And that’s how we partner with him.”
“(Mort) breaks the ice,” said Scott Ginsberg, the founder of Titan Casket. “Because when you look at him, how can you not love Mort? And so, Mort really helps.”
Seigel said Mort has been very popular, and sales have held strong. He has especially been selling to people in the profession.
“A lot of funeral directors and funeral homes have brought Mort home for their offices and to have for these types of conversations,” said Siegel.
However, other types of customers also want Mort in their homes. Some have even given Mort to their dogs.
“We have dozens of people who have sent us (pictures of) Mort in their dog’s mouth,” said Siegel. “I think he may end up coming in a variety of forms over time.”
Mort has also become famous online with his social media accounts. He is best known for discussing funeral planning and the Federal Trade Commission rule that gives consumers the right to buy separate goods, like caskets, and services like embalming or a memorial service at funeral homes.
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Probably not surprisingly, death is a subject that most — including marketers — tend to avoid.
“It’s a taboo topic,” said Ginsberg. “No one wants to embrace it, talk about it, and rightfully so.”
He continued, “Mort, he’s there to help you have that conversation.”
Mort will rise to fame in the next season of ‘Grave Conversations’
On Monday, Titan Casket announced the return of “Grave Conversations” for its second season. The series is hosted by actor, writer and producer David Dastmalchian — you may remember him from “Ant Man” and “The Suicide Squad” — and it features him interviewing celebrities while lying down in a casket.
The new season will feature 10 new guests who will discuss mortality, legacy and the human experience.
Details about when Season 2 will air, and the scheduled guests, will be announced in early 2025. Episodes will air in late winter or spring.
Season One, which featured Mike Flanagan, Kate Siegel, and Matthew Lillard, debuted in April 2024 and garnered over 10 million views across Instagram and X.
Siegel says Mort will be on set and ready to help facilitate the conversations.
About Titan Casket
Ginsberg has been in the casket business for over 20 years through his former company, Northern Craft Casket, which made and sold caskets throughout the Northeast.
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In 2016, he decided to launch Titan Casket by selling some caskets on Amazon and seeing how it went.
After it began working, he contacted Siegel, a fellow graduate of Columbia Business School, to see if creating a direct-to-consumer casket company — one that sold caskets at less cost than from funeral homes — was feasible.
Since the casket space had no consumer brands, Siegel thought there was a real opportunity to build something new.
“The industry hasn’t changed in over 100 years,” said Ginsberg. “We think about a funeral brand – you can’t. No one knows a funeral brand. So our goal is to be the funeral brand out there people look to and trust.”
What’s next?
The business’s next step is helping people plan their own funerals before they die. In the fall, they created a final wishes tool that allows families to capture all their funeral wishes in less than 10 minutes. It’s free, and users don’t have to buy a casket.
To entice more people to join the conversation, Titan Casket will continue to use pop culture and commercial events, such as an upcoming Black Friday sale, to raise awareness of the space.
“To bring awareness to the space in a way that can turn heads, but when those heads are turned, what they’ll find is hopefully a service that we’re really proud of and can help a lot of people,” said Siegel.
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