Paul Laforest once said, “If safety is a joke, then death is the punchline.” While this quotation may seem a bit morbid, the topic of safety is one that will never lose relevance in the eyes of the public. One way that safety is promoted is through Public Service Announcements, otherwise known as PSAs. When thinking of these one normally thinks of anti-smoking advertisements, or any other campaign that promotes safety by instilling fear within the audience of the consequences that come with being careless. However, one advertisement that may not immediately come to mind is the video titled, Dumb Ways to Die from Metro Melbourne that was published in 2012 to promote safety around trains. This video was able to have an impact on the audience through its use of logos to promote the idea that being safe around trains is so easy that it should be seen as common sense because any accident can be easily preventable. It also uses strong juxtaposition within its style to grab the attention of the audience by having a stark contrast between the mellow, uplifting song and the grim ways that the characters die throughout the video.

Everyone from the moment that they are born constantly worries about what is safe and what is not. Accidents are usually seen as unavoidable, but in this video, Metro Melbourne wanted to highlight the fact that preventing accidents around trains is so easy that for something to happen, you must have done something really “dumb.” As Metro Melbourne stated, “… it’s really hard to get hit by a train. A wrong or careless behavior is required.” When examining this advertisement this adds to how impactful it is on its target audience, the younger generation. Metro Trains Marketing Manager Chloe Alsop even stated that when designing the campaign, they came to realization that, “Kids aren’t scared of dying, but they definitely don’t want their friends to think they are stupid.” The video uses a catchy song and cute animation to attract the attention of children, who may not entirely know how to be safe when in the presence of trains. Then it subtly tells them that accidents around trains are just as “dumb” as eating a tube of glue, keeping a rattlesnake as a pet, or poking a bear which are all things that most children know not to do out of common sense, so they need to learn how to be safe so that they do not do something embarrassing. This way of making safety around trains as simple as common sense implies a level of logos being used to persuade the audience to listen to their campaign (Bronswell).

Besides Logos, the video is able to hold the attention of the audience through the juxtaposition within the style of the advertisement. At first glance, the video looks like a clip from a children’s television show, but while both teach important lessons, Dumb Ways to Die uses shocking visuals to convey its message. The largest contrast in the style of the video is between the song playing in the background and the animated visuals. The song is sung by a soothing female voice that almost sounds like someone that would sing a song on Sesame Street. The positive, mellow of the voice of the singer is the direct opposite of the grim, almost grotesque visuals of these animated characters dying in bizarre ways. The voice is almost able to lessen the morbidity of the subject at hand so that the video is still able to appeal to a younger audience. The main appeal of this video is its shock value, as seeing characters that could be on a normal children’s program die in strange ways is not a normal thing seen everyday. This juxtaposition leave the audience curious about what the PSA has to say and keeps their attention.

What makes Dumb Ways to Die so different from other PSA’s that are seen constantly on television? The biggest difference is the use of fear. For example, the 2018 anti-vaping advertisement titled “Vaping in an Epidemic” released by The Real Cost is the perfect example of the typical rhetorical devices used by PSA’s. This ad has a very dark, toxic tone that compares vaping to an epidemic. It uses logos in a different way by eliciting the typical fear response that people have towards anything relating to an epidemic which threatens not only their safety but that of their children. In Dumb Ways to Die however, the campaign entertains the audience in order to keep their attention on its underlying message. Many people when watching the video don’t even know that it is a PSA at all until the very end when the video says, “Be safe around trains. A message from Metro.” PSAs have a reputation for promoting safety through the use of fear tactics, but by promoting a more positive outlook on a topic that is mostly seen as grim, the Dumb Ways to Die campaign managed to get the world attention and keep it, even 5 or so years down the line. In the future, PSAs may start to take advice from the rhetorical strategies used by this campaign. For example, the anti-vaping advertisement may be able to hold the audience’s attention the first time they watch it, but its dark, almost depressing tone does not encourage the audience to watch it again or share it with others. There could be advertisements targeted towards a teenage audience to end the peer pressure that is seen throughout many high schools to vape without using fear as the driving force behind the message. In the end I believe that there are a lot of ways for different PSAs to use Dumb Ways to Die as a model for how these campaigns should be able to effect the world in the future.

In conclusion, PSAs have the ability to impact lives around the world. So many accidents can be prevented just by ensuring that children around the world know how to be safe everywhere they go, not just around trains. When done correctly they truly can have the ability to save lives that might be lost due to accidents that could have been prevented, because in the end, being careless around trains is a dumb way to die.