‘Dumb Ways to Die’ scoops top awards at Cannes

Ad agency Mccann’s Dumb Ways to Die became the most awarded ad in the history of the Cannes advertising festival, with its offbeat public service announcement for Metro Trains Melbourne finishing the festival with 32 Lions, including five Grand Prix awards, 18 gold, three silver and six bronze. The Australian-made advertisement featured animated characters being mauled, electrocuted, murdered and run over by trains, to educate young people about rail safety. John Hegarty, Film Lions jury president and founder of Bartle Bogle Hegarty, said the campaign “moved beyond advertising” and became part of the “social fabric. I think it’s actually a very interesting new way of using television,” Hegarty said. “Instead of relying upon a conventional 30-second spot to create something that is truly imaginative, Dumb Ways to Die captures people’s imagination, and they in turn pass it on and become part of your media. It’s a very cost-effective way of getting 70 million people.” Dumb Ways to Die from MediaCat TV on Vimeo.

The campaign even spawned a Grand Theft Auto V parody.

So how did Dumb Ways to Die become Australia’s most successful viral marketing video ever? Ultimately, it’s an ad that doesn’t feel anything like an ad. It’s happy and silly and joyful and clever and more than a little odd; the intangible things that are so hard to rationalise, but so very important.

And very importantly, the campaign was easy to share and discuss. That meant turning the whole thing into animated gifs for tumblr. Making the song downloadable via iTunes, soundcloud and a website. Not disabling comments on youtube.