Dumb Ways to Die (Tangerine Kitty) |
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Dumb Ways to Die is an Australian 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.
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 March 2015, the video received over 100 million views.
The song "Dumb Ways to Die" from the video was written by John Mescall with music by Ollie McGill from The Cat Empire, who also produced it. It was performed by Emily Lubitz, the lead vocalist of Tinpan Orange, with McGill providing backing vocals.
The campaign won seven Webby Awards in 2013 including the Best Animation Film & Video and Best Public Service & Activism (Social Content & Marketing).
It won three Siren Awards, run by Commercial Radio Australia, including the Gold Siren for best advertisement of the year and Silver Sirens for the best song and best campaign.
The public service announcement was awarded the Grand Trophy in the 2013 New York Festivals International Advertising Awards.
In June 2013, the campaign clip won the Integrated Grand Prix at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, and overall, won five Grand Prix awards, 18 Gold Lions, three Silver Lions, and two Bronze Lions, which was the most for the campaign in the festival's history.
Set fire to your hair
Poke a stick at a grizzly bear
Eat medicine that's out of date
Use your private parts as piranha bait
Dumb ways to die
So many dumb ways to die
Dumb ways to die
So many dumb ways to die
Get your toast out with a fork
Do your own electrical work
Teach yourself how to fly
Eat a two-week-old unrefrigerated pie
Dumb ways to die
So many dumb ways to die
Dumb ways to die
So many dumb ways to die
Invite a psycho killer inside
Scratch a drug dealer's brand new ride
Take your helmet off in outer space
Use your clothes dryer as a hiding place
Dumb ways to die
So many dumb ways to die
Dumb ways to die
So many dumb ways to die
Keep a rattlesnake as a pet
Sell both your kidneys on the internet
Eat a tube of superglue
I wonder what's this red button do?
Dumb ways to die
So many dumb ways to die
Dumb ways to die
So many dumb ways to die
Dress up like a moose during hunting season
Disturb a nest of wasps for no good reason
Stand on the edge of a train station platform
Drive around the boomgates at a level crossing
Run across the tracks between the platforms
They may not rhyme but they're quite possibly
The dumbest ways to die
The dumbest ways to die
The dumbest ways to die
So many dumb, so many dumb ways to die
Be safe around trains
A message from Metro