The campaign was devised by advertising agency
McCann Melbourne. It appeared in newspapers, local radio and outdoor advertising throughout the Metro Trains network and on
Tumblr. John Mescall, executive creative director of McCann, said, "The aim of this campaign is to engage an audience that really doesn't want to hear any kind of safety message, and we think dumb ways to die will." According to Metro Trains, the campaign contributed to a 20% reduction in "near-miss" accidents compared to the annual average, or 30% with respect to the same time of the year before from 13.29 near-misses per million kilometres in November 2011 – January 2012, to 9.17 near-misses per million kilometres in November 2012 – January 2013.
Animated video The video was art directed by Patrick Baron, animated by Julian Frost, and produced by Cinnamon Darvall. (the first four beans in the video, listed in order of appearance) dying as a result of their own stupidity (doing such unwise, foolish, and dangerous things as setting their own hair on fire, provoking a grizzly bear by poking it with a stick, eating expired medicine, and having the lower half of their body eaten by piranhas); the final three beans shown in the video, named Stumble, Bonehead, and Putz, It was performed by Emily Lubitz, the lead vocalist of
Tinpan Orange, with McGill providing backing vocals. It was released on
iTunes, attributed to the artist "Tangerine Kitty" (a reference to Tinpan Orange and The Cat Empire).