Dumb Ways to Die is a public service announcement campaign by Metro Trains in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, to promote rail safety.The campaign video went viral through sharing and social media starting in November 2012.The campaign was devised by advertising agency McCann Melbourne. It appeared in newspapers, local radio, outdoor advertising, throughout the Metro Trains network and on Tumblr.John Mescall, executive creative director of McCann, said "The aim of this campaign is to engage an audience that really doesn't want to hear any kind of safety message, and we think Dumb Ways To Die will". McCann estimated that within two weeks it had generated at least 50 million dollars worth of global media value in addition to more than 700 media stories, for "a fraction of the cost of one TV ad". According to Metro Trains, the campaign contributed to a more than 30% reduction in "near-miss" accidents in a year.
Video
A video was developed by Pat Baron, animated by Julian Frost, and produced by Cinnamon Darvall. It was uploaded to YouTube on 14 November 2012 and made public two days later. It featured "twenty-one characters killing themselves in increasingly stupid ways, culminating in the last three characters being killed by trains due to unsafe behavior. It was viewed 2.5 million times within 48 hours and 4.7 million times within 72 hours. Within two weeks, the video had been viewed 30 million times.As of December 2014, the video received over 95 million views.
Song
The song "Dumb Ways to Die" from the video was written by John Mescall with music by Ollie McGill from, who also produced it. It was performed by Emily Lubitz, the lead vocalist of Tinpan Orange., with McGill providing backing vocals. It was released on iTunes, attributed to the artist "Tangerine Kitty".
Don´t shoot the messenger!
(Just take it as as a warning)
