The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro)  launched a new imaginative online and print etiquette campaign to raise public awareness about proper behavior while riding Metro buses and trains.

Using anime characters, the campaign, called “Metro Manners,” takes a unique, light-hearted approach in the agency’s ongoing efforts to educate riders about three of the most pervasive etiquette problems on Metro’s expanding transit system: seat-hogging, blocking aisles and eating and drinking while riding. 

Metro has produced three videos and an accompanying print campaign featuring Super Kind, a pop star super hero who battles a monster named Rude Dude who blatantly violates etiquette rules on Metro’s transit system. Super Kind saves the day by calling on her super powers to teach Rude Dude a lesson in transit courtesy. 

Metro’s Customer Code of Conduct provides common sense courtesy and safety rules that apply to all riders. Occupying more than one seat per person, also called seat hogging, is not allowed. Patrons also should not block aisles, doorways or the operators’ exit. Those with luggage, bicycles or other oversized items should place them in the specially designated area of the bus or train for large items. Eating, drinking and smoking are all prohibited on Metro. Each offense carries a possible $75 fine that increases for every additional cited offense.

Metro teamed with creative production studio Lord Danger and director Mike Diva to develop the campaign. The campaign’s colorful approach was developed by Diva, whose interpretations of pop culture and digital connectedness has resulted in tens of millions of views on social media. Metro Manners is the first integrated campaign for Diva and Lord Danger. The producers cast Anna Akana, who has more than 1.8 million subscribers on YouTube for her weekly series, as Super Kind, Metro’s official protector of the agency’s Customer Code of Conduct. Rude Dude was designed in conjunction with noted collaborator FONCO.