Watch: Los Angeles Metro’s Unbelievably Gruesome New Ads Are A Hit On Social Media


Los Angeles Metro set out to make its most recent line of ads as shockingly brutal and macabre as possible, writes GOOD. They accomplished their goal with flying colors, creating a series of safety PSAs sources are hailing as “comically gruesome,” “hilariously horrifying,” and “STONE COLD S**T.” They might have accomplished their task a little too well, in fact; many of the video advertisements that make up the Los Angeles company’s new campaign are downright disturbing, and Daily News reports they have gone viral because of how out-there they are.

Each of the new Los Angeles Metro safety videos begins with a cheery woman’s voice saying that “it’s a beautiful day in Safetyville.” Over the next 20 to 30 seconds, the video shows a man or woman, always drawn in the style of one of those black figures you might find on a safety label, engaging in some kind of negligent action around a train that leads to him or her getting dismembered, crushed, or otherwise obliterated by said train. The ads always end with the same woman’s voice informing her audience that “safety begins with you.”

For example, one of the videos, “Present or Pulverized,” sees a woman with her eyes glued to her iPad step over the yellow “do not cross” line while waiting for the train to arrive. You can probably infer what happens next from the name of the video.

Were you right about what would happen? If so, give yourself a pat on the back.

There are also videos entitled “Careful or Crushed,” “Patient or Pancake,” “Mindful or Mangled,” “Dismount or Dismembered,” and what seems to be the favorite among reports covering the Los Angeles Metro campaign, “Heads-Up or Headless.” All the videos are embedded at the end of this article.

Presumably, the trains in the videos are meant to represent the Los Angeles Metro cars and the creepy, marionette-like figures are supposed to represent Los Angeles commuters. Imagining the situations depicted in the videos going down in the real world, though, is a bit difficult to stomach.

Los Angeles Metro Safety Ad Campaign is Dark
This cannot end well for Martin. [Image via Meto Los Angeles/YouTube]
The over-the-top shock value the ads shove at their audience is totally intentional, though, says Metro Board Chair and Los Angeles County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas.

“These videos are edgy by design because we want these messages to stick. A lapse of attention at a rail crossing or unsafe behavior at a station can have dire if not deadly consequences.”

Los Angeles Metro CEO Phillip Washington tells CBS Los Angeles that the campaign is being enacted now because the metro has recently expanded to several new areas of Los Angeles where locals are “unaccustomed to interacting with trains.”

That’s all very well and good, says the GOOD piece, but the Los Angeles Metro’s most recent ads almost seem to revel in the horrific demises met by their characters, and the ads might be a little more lighthearted than the agency was hoping for.

That being said, the campaign was supposedly inspired by an even more ridiculous train safety ad campaign run by the Melbourne, Australia, Metro agency several years back entitled “Dumb Ways to Die.”

In the ad, even more cartoony characters die in even more horrible, off-the-wall fashions.

But, while the Melbourne ads are so cartoonish that they are simply funny, GOOD notes, the Los Angeles version is a bit more realistic and plausible, and that is what makes it truly creepy.

Despite the fact that the ads are horrifying, though, Los Angeles Daily News points out that social media users do seem to think the PSAs really are effective, saying that they definitely stick with their audience and encourage constant vigilance.

What do you think? Is the new Los Angeles Metro train safety campaign a stroke of brilliance or a step too far?

[Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images]

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