Dumb Ways to Spend Halloween

The popular dark comedy is back - this time with a safety video around Halloween.

Who would have thought that a video showing you absolutely mindless ways to kill yourself would become a big hit in the international advertising circuit? But as luck would have it, Metro Trains Melbourne's 2012 video, Dumb Ways to Die, became insanely popular both with advertisers and casual web surfers. And now, riding piggyback on the success of that video, McCann Erickson Melbourne has released another video with the Halloween theme in mind.

The interactive video on YouTube is titled simply
Dumb Ways to Die - Halloween
. The first 20-second video shows two of the earlier characters from the original video. This ends with an option for the viewer - trick or treat. Clicking on Trick allows one to follow one of the characters as he steals eggs from a barn to throw at people's houses. This is fun, but then the hens attack and well... kill him.

For Treat, viewers can see the result of getting too much candy. With more than natural amount of candy in his tummy, the protagonist in this case, dies from a burst stomach. Both videos end with a reminder to be safe around Halloween, and almost as an after-thought, around train-tracks.

This is not the first time that the brand has brought the characters back as those who have followed it will know. When the ice bucket fever was in full swing, the characters had taken an unsuccessful attempt at it. Valentine's Day and Fool's Day were also celebrated with videos designed around them. McCann has also designed online games under the name 'Let the trainings begin' - teasers of which are already on YouTube.

Meanwhile, the viewership for this has reached nowhere close to the original video. The 2012 video was named the best television advertisement in the world after winning five grand prix trophies at the Cannes International Festival of Creativity last year. The current one, so far, has around 2,90,000 views.