In 2012, Melbourne’s Metro Trains faced a problem: young people were still taking reckless risks aro

In 2012, Melbourne’s Metro Trains faced a problem: young people were still taking reckless risks around railways, ignoring every serious safety warning they threw at them.

So instead of fear, they used fun.
McCann Melbourne created “Dumb Ways to Die” - a sugary-sweet animation featuring adorable characters dying in increasingly stupid ways (eating expired medicine, poking snakes, you name it). Then came the punchline: “The dumbest way to die is around trains.”

It shouldn’t have worked. But it did - spectacularly.

The song went viral, clocking up hundreds of millions of views. The spin-off game hit over 130 million downloads. There were pledges, merch, TikToks, parodies… even classroom versions. And Metro Trains reported a measurable drop in near-miss incidents after launch.

What made it genius wasn’t just the tune - it was the emotional contrast. It caught you off guard, made you laugh, then made you think.

Proof that public safety - or any other ad campaign, for that matter - doesn’t have to be public boredom.