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Dumb Ways To Die viral views exceed the population of Australia

The views amassed on YouTube by Metro Trains’ Dumb Ways To Die viral has passed the population of Australia.

Launched just a week ago, the video – created by McCann Melbourne – has been watched 22.3m times, at the time of writing.

Paid media behind the campaign started in the middle of last week, with ads running locally in newspapers in Melbourne, such as commuter paper mX and, today, The Herald Sun.

The tune is being played without lyrics at train stations in Melbourne.

Dumb Ways To Die in The Herald Sun today

“Metro train staff are used to receiving negative feedback from the public. People never say thank you if a train is on time,” John Mescall, the ECD of McCann WorldGroup Australia, told Mumbrella today. “But they tell me that for once they’ve been receiving positive comments from the public.”

“They’ve even noticed people smiling while standing on the platform waiting for a train,” said Mescall, who wrote Dump Ways To Die.

“The song has gone nuts in Asia, and in Europe and the US there has been interest about taking this sort of approach to a public service announcement,” he added.

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