Cheerfully gruesome Metro safety campaign provokes laughs with cautionary message

A new safety video campaign from Los Angeles county's transit agency highlights the various ways trains can behead, pulverize, flatten, and otherwise maim or kill, all depicted with bright stick figure graphics and cheerful narration.

Social media went a bit bonkers over the videos — just as its producers intended.

The series of darkly humorous videos have created international buzz, having been shared on social media upwards of 1.2 million times in the week after they were posted by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

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"They are catchy visually, they are unexpected with their outcome and there's that moment where you go, 'Ooh!"' said John Gordon, Metro's director of social media and the man behind the idea. 

Metro's Blue Line light rail has the dubious distinction of being among the most deadly in the country based on a per mile measure. In addition, the agency has recently opened more than 20 miles of new rail in areas that haven't seen trains in decades.

Officials have been holding safety workshops at schools and community meetings, but the agency wanted to leverage social media to bring attention to the issue. The 12 videos cost about $3,300 each to produce, six in English and six in Spanish, for a total of about $40,000.

"It's that wake-up call, that thing that riders take for granted every single day," said Gordon. "The dark humor removes the threat and people are able to put themselves in that situation."

Studies of fear messaging in public safety and health campaigns have shown mixed results. While scare tactics often make a strong impression, they can cause people to turn away and disengage from the solutions to the problems. So Gordon purposefully went for a more humorous tone in the videos.

Gordon said his team was inspired by a viral video produced for Melbourne's transit agency called "Dumb Ways to Die." It contains an animated song about dumb things that lead to death, including rail accidents:

Officials in Melbourne noted a 21 percent decrease in rail accidents and near misses after the campaign launched, although they can't attribute it solely to the video.

See more videos at Metro's website.