"DUMB WAYS TO DIE" MAKES RAILWAY SAFETY POPULAR

"DUMB WAYS TO DIE" MAKES RAILWAY SAFETY POPULAR

A few weeks ago I heard a song playing on my ten-year old daughter's iphone from the back seat of the car.  It's my job to determine 'appropriate' content for Shelby.  As soon as I heard the first part of the chorus, with a female voice singing "Dumb Ways to Die" to a catchy upbeat melody, I told her to shut it off.

Shelby told me she heard it first at her friend's house.  "It's funny," she said.  Curious, I asked her to play it again so I could hear the entire song.  When it finished playing, I was smiling too, because I realized the song is a brilliant breakthrough in public service campaign marketing.

Take a look at the first verse of the song:  "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  Eat medicine that's out of date, use your private parts as piranha bait."  The rest of the lyrics are equally bizarre.  At the end of the tune, however, the dumb ways to die center around railway safety:  Stand on the edge of a train station platform.  Drive around the boom gates at a level crossing.  Run across the tracks between the platforms.  They may not rhyme but they’re quite possibly... (Chorus) Dumbest ways to die.  After the music ends, there is a tag line.  "Be safe around trains. A message
from Metro."

A little research brought me to the website of http://www.metrotrains.com.au/ Melbourne, Australia's metropolitan train network.  "Dumb Ways to Die" was commissioned by Metro to draw public attention to railway safety issues.  Uploaded to youtube last November, this little public service ripple has grown into a mammoth viral tsunami of awareness with a total of nearly 53,000,000 views to date.  Written by Australian musician Ollie McGill from the band The Cat Empire and performed by Emily Lubitz of Tinpan Orange, Dumb Ways to Die was made available for sale on iTunes and reached the top 10 in the global iTunes chart within 24 hours of its release.   And to follow up, the Dumb Ways to Die game app recently launched:  Dumb Ways to Die iphone app game.

The success of this small campaign is a superlative example of creative problem solving.  Traditional public service pieces concerning safety rely on fear to motivate the public:  stop smoking, don't drink and drive, etc.  Instead in this case the subtle use of humor and music achieves the desired result with powerful and lasting effect.  

Powerful, because youtube doesn't broadcast to everyone.  Almost 53,000,000 people have searched out the song and voluntarily chosen to play it.  It's not background noise in a television commercial or on an outdoor billboard.  Each person is a dedicated viewer and listener for the duration of the song.  Lasting, because many listen several times over a long period, making the shelf life of this campaign almost indefinite.  And industry recognition is building.  The campaign won Direct and PR Grand Prix Awards at Cannes 2013.

The most impressive benchmark for Metro's success is something that was unimaginable ten years ago:  a ten-year old girl riding in a car in the US listens to a popular song commissioned by an Australian train company to inform their local riders about railway safety.

If Metro's trains are as good as their marketing, then all of their seats must be first class.

Listen to the song here:Dumb Ways to Die