Nuffield Health: Inaction Man
Our perfect man – from the burger in his hand to the label on his bum.
Nuffield Health: ‘Inaction Man’ Promotion
The Technical Details:
Figure: Hand-painted, injection moulded TPE with matt varnish.
Box: Four-colour Litho E-flute carton with PVC window. Die-cuts and zip locks to secure the figure.
Mailing carton: Unprinted brown B-flute mailer.
It’s not every day you get asked to develop an injection moulded couch-potato man. For us, that day arrived in March 2007, when Andy at Sell Sell called up with a bit of an unusual commission. But it was one we jumped at. This was an idea that just had to happen.
Andy’s brief was to create the antithesis of Action Man: Inaction Man. A fat slob who did nothing except flop on the sofa and channel-hop. Forget ‘Eagle Eyes’ and that fuzzy Commando haircut: Inaction Man’s accessories were limited to a burger and a remote.
All this apparent madness was to help Andy’s clients, the staff and reps at Nuffield Health, promote a healthier lifestyle.
Initial Concept
From early sketches, our model makers in Germany began to develop some suitably unattractive, hand-tooled wax models. From there, they produced the tooling from which an army of flabby figures would be injection moulded and then lovingly hand-painted – right down to the inky pen-pocket.
Models
It was clear we were creating a bit of a legend. And to show him at his best, we made a splendid display box, with fittings tailored to his uniquely
bulky form.
Of course, there were hurdles to leap (or crawl lazily) over: getting the CE mark onto his bottom, achieving the perfect pallid skin tone, applying EN71 warnings to keep little fingers away, and perfecting the right spike size (grip size) for his dreary accessories. Sadly, we had to admit defeat when it came to making a ciggie dangle from his mouth. But overall, we were thrilled with the whole, horrible result.
Finally, on 3 September, Inaction Man was tucked into his box and palletted up, ready to conquer the world. We soon got word from Andy: ‘Our fat friend is going down a storm,’ he said.
Final Product