'DUMB WAYS TO DIE' VIDEO GOES VIRAL

MELBOURNE METRO TRAINS SAFETY
CAMPAIGN TURNS INTERNET SENSATION

www.iol.co.za - A catchy tune, some cute animated figures and a giggle at blood on the train tracks has delivered almost 12 million YouTube hits for an Australian passenger safety message called Dumb Ways to Die. “It's distracting. It's wonderful. We're thrilled. It's been a huge hit for us,” Melbourne's Metro Trains spokeswoman Leah Waymark said Wednesday. “Getting young people thinking perhaps thinking twice before they do something dumb, that's a great outcome.” 
John Mescall, creative director at advertising agency McCann Worldgroup's Melbourne office, said the key to producing the nation's fastest-trending internet hit ever was sneaking up on those the safety message was intended to reach. “If it looks and smells and tastes like an ad, it won't get shared,” he said. “You need a good title. Dumb Ways to Die! Who wouldn't click on that? If we'd called it How to Behave Around Trains, you'd be looking at just 100 000 shares.” 

Mescall put the rip-roaring success down to breaking the taboo and being funny about death. “I think a part of us needs to do that,” he said. “It's like laughing at the thing that's hiding in the corner that's going to get us all in the end.” - Sapa-dpa.  The brains behind the clip, John Mescall, says he has been taken back by the response. He says YouTube has told him it is one of the most successfully shared files on mobile devices. ''From the beginning we planned to make it very shareable, but look you can never plan for something to be the biggest viral campaign in the world,” he said. The song can also be downloaded from iTunes. It has become an unexpected hit in several Asian countries including Taiwan, Vietnam and Singapore. 
Ms Waymark says while the popularity of the video has been overwhelming, she says the importance of the message should not be lost. “To have young people singing about safety around trains is just a terrific outcome for us,” she said. The video has knocked off Rihanna's Diamonds and Psy's Gangnam Style to be number one on the Viral Video Chart.

It's hard not to like “Dumb Ways To Die”, the cute, three-minute animation that this week became Australia's fastest spreading viral advertisement and which promotes safety around trains. It features a bunch of colourful, pill-shaped figures, each demonstrating a ludicrous way to kill oneself - taking one's helmet off in space, using one's private parts as piranha bait, scratching a drug dealer's new car. At the song's final verse we get the message: that possibly the dumbest ways to die are by being too close to the edge of a train station platform, driving around the boom gates at a level crossing, or running across the tracks between the platforms. Humour is importantat because “young people often see themselves as being indestructible so shock images of body bags don't work,” said Leah Waymark, the Melbourne's Metro Trains spokeswoman. Why do we like doing activities that are risky for us? To escape from these harmful behaviours we should have a greater commitment to our inner self and the Supreme.

WHAT DO THE VEDIC TEACHINGS TELL US? 

The average lifetime of a human being consists of many days and nights, so major scares are bound to come up every now and then, incidents which bring a person to the verge of death or some other major calamity. Some things such as accidents and natural disasters are more or less unavoidable, but other scares come about through choices that are made. ... but how do people react to these near-death experiences if they do occur? ... Why do we repeatedly perform activities that we know are bad for us? ... Harmful behavior can only be eradicated if we have a higher engagement. ... The problem is that the activities which best stimulate the senses are often those which are the most harmful. So what can be done? The Vedas, the ancient scriptures of India, tell us that the living entities need a higher engagement, something which transcends all other activities. ... This discipline is known as Bhakti-yoga, or devotional service.

Krishna'sMercy.org - Jai Shri Krishna :
“Dangerous Behavior” - Posted on July 17, 2010
http://www.krishnasmercy.org/dotnetnuke/
http://krishnasmercy.wordpress.com/2010/07/17/dangerous-behavior/

Published by dasavatara das - "Vedic Views on World News"
http://www.vedicviews-worldnews.blogspot.com.ar/