More and more people are starting to use public transit around LA, which is awesome—except for when those riders are careless about the safety of themselves and others. To address those concerns, Metro has just released an ad campaign where careless animated characters have horrible things happen to them. If you’ve ever walked along a subway platform while scrolling though Facebook on your phone, these ads are designed to get your attention.
The six short videos feature yellow and black illustrations in the style of safety signage, showing stick-figures going about their commutes in the fictional—and evidently, extremely dangerous—town of Safetyville. As GOOD describes it, "Safetyville, where peril is waiting around every corner in the form of dismemberment, decapitation and impalement, among other horrors."
Lots of stick-figure body segments go flying as the characters meet grisly demises after making poor transportation safety choices. A car tries to speed across train tracks and doesn't exactly make it before the train arrives; a rider is so distracted by cat photos that an arriving train flings her to her death; an absent-minded surfer dude just walks into the path of an oncoming subway. Vaya con dios, brah.
The campaign was inspired by a similarly weird PSA series which was a hit in Melbourne, and it seems to be doing its job. The over-the-top clips are being shared across social media, and Metro LA's YouTube channel (home to a few other gems we love) has already logged over 210,000 views on the spots. While it’s unlikely many of us would accidentally walk right into the path of a train, the safety reminder is always a good one.
