Mackinnon & Saunders Bring Renowned Puppetry to Charming Men's Health Campaign

Mackinnon & Saunders, the animation house that’s worked on everything from Bob the Builder to Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride and Wes Anderson’s Fantastic Mr. Fox, had collaborated with U.K. digital health brand Numan on a series of stop-motion videos about men’s health.

One of the biggest impediments to men’s health is sheer inaction—men don’t tend to proactively monitor their health or take concrete steps to stay healthy. The new campaign addresses that with a character called Inertia Man, who hasn’t done anything to address his erectile dysfunction or hair loss, even though both are treatable without even needing to physically visit a doctor.

But he becomes an action figure, quite literally, in the spots below.

Numan’s in-house creative studio crafted the spots with Mackinnon & Saunders. They were co-directed by Steven Qua and animation director Tobias Fouracre. The media strategy was devised by Bountiful Cow and includes Channel 4 and Sky, with a focus on popular sports programming including the Premier League.

“This is a new creative direction for Numan, and we are delighted with the resultsm” says Sokratis Papafloratos, CEO at Numan. “Our ads have always been provocative, to help break down taboos and get men to act on their health issues.  But the ads have always stood alone. This campaign sets a new brand platform for Numan that will exist beyond TV, and introduces warmth, storytelling, humor, emotion and characters to make it easy for men to connect and take action.”

See some more creative from the campaign below.

CREDITS

Production Agency: Uncle Sunshine
Producer Dolly Course 
Directors Tobias Fouracre @ Rowdy Film, Steven Qua 
Casting Director Jon Levene

Cast 
Dunks – Bruce Barker 
Inertia Man – Barry Sloane 
Doc – Paul Anthony Barber 

Director of Photography Malcolm Hadley 
Lighting Cameraman John Duffy 
Animators Steve Warne, Anna Pearson, Fabrice Pieton 
Character Design and Puppet Build MacKinnon and Saunders 
Production Design Andy Farago at Clockwork Frog 

Media Agency: Bountiful Cow
Head of Activation Ian Daly
Head of Strategy Chetan Murthy
Account Director George Mackean