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Featured era: 2012
Dumb Ways to Die
“Cute beans, a catchy chorus, and a serious word about trains.”
- Featured era
- 2012
- Peak era
- 2012-2013
- Company
- McCann Melbourne / Metro Trains
- Category
- Viral Videos
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On Video
The original "Dumb Ways to Die" video
Plays from YouTube when you press play. Views, length and date from YouTube, October 2026.
About This Video
- From:
- Dumb Ways to Die
- Added:
- November 14, 2012
- Length:
- 3:02
What Was It?
Dumb Ways to Die is a railway safety campaign made for Metro Trains in Melbourne by the agency McCann Melbourne. Its video, animated by Julian Frost, shows a parade of cheerful bean-shaped characters with names like Numpty, Hapless and Pillock meeting sudden ends, from poking a grizzly bear with a stick to eating out-of-date medicine. The last three die around trains, the dumbest ways of all.
The song was written by John Mescall with Patrick Baron, with music by Ollie McGill of The Cat Empire and vocals by Emily Lubitz of Tinpan Orange, released under the name Tangerine Kitty. The video was uploaded to YouTube on November 14, 2012, and inspired more than 85 parodies within two weeks.
At the 2013 Cannes Lions it won five Grand Prix and more awards than any campaign before it, and it grew into a series of mobile games.
Things You Probably Forgot
- Numpty, Hapless, Pillock and Dippy
- A chorus critics called "instant earworm material"
- The mobile game about keeping the beans alive
- Parodies starring the Curiosity rover and Game of Thrones
The Story
- 2012 The video was uploaded to YouTube on November 14 and made public two days later.
- 2013 The campaign won five Grand Prix at Cannes Lions, and the first game came out for iOS.
- 2021 PlaySide Studios bought the Dumb Ways to Die franchise from Metro.
Its Legacy
The video is still on the campaign's official channel. Metro credited it with a drop in near misses, though some questioned that claim, and PlaySide Studios bought the franchise in 2021.
Memories
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