Massachusetts

Methuen casket company calls on America to ‘bury' daylight saving time

Massachusetts-based Titan Casket's viral ad, made with Ryan Reynolds' production company, argues for an end to changing the clocks back and forth every year

NBC Universal, Inc.

For a casket company, loss is part of the business. But losing an hour of sleep, like many will this weekend, creates an undying anger.

Titan Casket, based in Methuen, Massachusetts, is doing something about it. In a now-viral ad, the company is pushing people to join the fight to end daylight saving time.

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"At Titan Casket, we obviously have an interest in you dying, but we can wait," the ad states.

Starring movie star David Dastmalchian, who was recently in "Oppenheimer" and "Dune," the ad goes through some of the reported health issues associated with the time change.

"If an actual casket company doesn't think it is worth keeping around, who does?" the commercial continues.

"We are pinching ourselves every day. This ad is just amazing," said Titan cofounder Scott Ginsberg. "I think it is awesome."

Benjamin Franklin gets credit for a lot of things, but creating Daylight Saving Time shouldn’t be one of them.

Titan worked with Hollywood heavyweight Maximum Effort, the production company started by actor Ryan Reynolds. It even created a website that, in character, calls on people to bury DST.

"We think it is incredibly funny, and it talks about our national nuisance of daylight saving time, but also sheds light on the company and what we stand for," Joshua Siegel, another cofounder of Titan, said Friday.

This isn't Titan's first brush with the limelight. Back in October of 2022, Titan woke up to the news one of its caskets was in Taylor Swift's "Anti-Hero" music video.

"We went viral, and millions of families went viral through the golden touch of Taylor Swift," Siegel said. "We had a big vision for the company, but I don't think we dreamed this big."

For Titan, this is all more than just clicks and social media likes.

"Part of our mission is to normalize conversations around death and dying, and so we are comfortable being bold in our marketing and using humor as a way to turn heads," Siegel said. "We hope when families see the ad they will laugh, but maybe they will have a five- or 10-minute conversation about what they want at the end of life."

Clocks turn back an hour at 2 a.m. Sunday as daylight saving time comes to an end, and standard time kicks in. Yes, we gain an hour of sleep but we also lose an hour of daylight at the end of the day. Dr. Charles Czeisler, a sleep medicine specialist at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, joined NBC10 Boston on Saturday to talk about adjusting to the time change.
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