Death is Interesting



It is the responsibility of the next of kin, not the police to clean up a crime scene. So, if you are unfortunate enough to be in that situation, who are you going to call?

There was a segment on This American Life over the weekend about a company called Crime Scene Cleaners, Inc. in California. The company truck signage reads Crime Scene Cleaners Inc. Specializing in Homicide, Suicide, Accidental Death.

Nancy Updike the producer of this segment of the show interviews the founder, Neal Smither, about his work. She makes the point that "his directness about what he does is intentional, it's his marketing strategy." And based on the fact that he's been able to franchise his business all over the U.S., it would appear to be an effective one. Smither is not concerned with being discrete, he's concerned with being memorable. In the show, Smither explains "Gore sells. Look at the truck... I hope I don't offend too many people. I try to be honest with them. You know, we're dealing with death. How do you sugarcoat death, you know? You can't."

Nancy Updike pauses in the show to make another point: "I want to stop and acknowledge that this is gross. It is. But it's interesting. And to me, it is much more interesting than it is gross. I mean think of it." She is not the only one who finds this guy and his company interesting. A quick google search returns IMDB pages about a documentary and a television series made about the company.

What Neal Smither understands is that crime, crime scenes, and death are interesting to people. And they have been throughout human history. And so, instead of trying to be discrete about what he does for a living like his competitors; Steri-Clean, Bio One, or TACT, he dives head-first into what people are interested in.

When it comes to mental availability, his company is likely to be way ahead of its competitors. The shock of seeing his company name on the side of the truck rolling down the highway is likely to get your attention. But it may be what comes next that you are unlikely to forget. It just begs the viewer to think, Where is it going? What's in the back? What happened? What's the story there?

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