Dumb Ways To Spread: Uca Students Give A Fresh And Fun Voice To The Vaccination Campaign!

In 2010, Metro Australia’s train safety PSA took the world by storm, juxtaposing a dark topic with a song so catchy you’re singing it in your head now. A decade later and a pandemic later, a group of advertising and animation students at the University for the Creative Arts saw potential in refreshing the cult classic.

The idea came as a throwaway remark, picking up momentum as the creatives Beti Bara, Tarek Badawi, Kyle Gayle, Jelmer Heijligers, Bea Galkeviciute, Hannah Rees, Cassia Hodgson, Payton Procter, Phoebe Robinson, and Rayhannah Preston started drafting lyrics and storyboarding instantly. With a sharpened insight to raise awareness and encourage vaccination, they joined forces with Çise Tuna, Kieran Firth-Bernard, Jack Hilder, Harvey Auerbach-Dunn, and Cameron Carr, to bring their message to life through animation. Singer songwriter, Eloise Kate, fell in love with the idea when it was pitched to her, joining the team and giving the campaign a ‘voice’.

The entire campaign was finished in only a month and a half, exclusively online. The creatives haven’t collaborated in the past nor met in person, yet each challenge was met with mutual trust and an open mind. This goes to show how many boundaries creativity is willing to break through when two passionate courses combine their forces, to prove how ‘essential’ artists truly are.

Timed with the easing of the restrictions in the UK, Dumb Ways to Spread uses humour, memorable characters, and real events. Follow @dumbways2spread on Twitter and Instagram for more!