Don’t let the pleasant narration and sunny surroundings of “Safetyville” fool you. The new Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s public safety ads are not playing around.
In the videos, careless stick figures meet gruesome, yellow-and-black ends via various transportation-related accidents.
Even the titles of the ads don’t trade in subtlety: Would you rather be “Heads-up or headless?” “Present or pulverized?” A good stick figure, or one that ends up embedded in a telephone pole?
It’s okay to laugh, as long as you get the message. At least, that’s what L.A. Metro authorities hope you’ll do.
“These videos are edgy by design because we want these messages to stick,” said Metro Board Chair and Los Angeles County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas in a press release.
They are certainly “sticky” in so many ways. People seem to love the off-color humor (and they seem a little concerned for the remaining residents of Safetyville, who are obviously doomed).
If all of this looks familiar, it’s because the campaign was inspired by another deceptively cutesy safety campaign: The “Dumb Ways to Die” video, which was released in 2012 by Metro Trains Melbourne. Oh, those Aussies.
The lowkey horrifying video has more then 131 MILLION views on YouTube and is the most-shared safety ad ever. The accompanying song charted on iTunes, and there are even sequel videos (“Don’t be dumb or you will perish!”)
The people may be minced in these safety ads, but the words never are.