Viral Video with 8M Views: "Dumb Ways to Die" Melbourne Metro Ad - Cute, Twisted, Brilliant
Catchy tune, dreadful scenes, imaginative animation make effective public safety ad
"Dumb Ways to Die," a public transport TV ad for Melbourne Metro, has drawn 8 million views on YouTube in a week's time. It has been described in many ways and these are some of the most used words: cute, twisted, and brilliant.
Melbourne has a population of nearly 5 million people, but the "Dumb Ways to Die" metro ad clearly reached viewers beyond the city.
The ad features dreadful causes of death with a cute animation and a catchy tune. It shows - in a twisted but effective way - that death could come to those who ignore the signal at a pedestrian level crossing and act careless on train tracks. The 3-minute video is brilliant in getting viewers' attention.
Watch the video, and you are likely to catch a 'Dumb Ways' LSS (last song syndrome). The words and the melody could loop in your head all day.
"Dumb ways to die...dumb ways to die-ie-ie," goes the song performed by Melbourne artist Tangerine Kitty.
If you can't get enough of the "Dumb Ways to Die" theme, you can get it here. The funny song has made it in Australia's top 10 list on iTunes, which just goes to show how ear-friendly it is to the Aussies.
John Mescall, the McCann executive creative director behind the campaign, said:
"We've got people eating superglue, sticking forks in toasters and selling both their kidneys. But truth is indeed stranger than fiction, and we still couldn't come up with dumber ways to die than driving around boomgates and all the other things people do to put themselves in harm's way around trains. 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."
Viral Video, 8M Views: "Dumb Ways to Die" Melbourne Metro Ad - Cutest PSA ever?
McCann's "Dumb Ways to Die" is arguably one of the cutest PSAs ever made. See for yourself, play the media below.
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