Digital health provider looks to challenge notion that tackling obesity is all about willpower.
Pastry-based officer worker botherer Buffet Boy in action
Director Steve Ayson has teamed up with Numan’s in-house creative team on this TV campaign to show the “behavioral and environmental challenges” people face when they try to lose weight, according to the digital health provider, which suggests that people live in an “obesogenic environment.”
The main character in the film, Lisa, is harangued by Buffet Boy but resists any snacks he offers. An éclair-fingered, pastry-clad vision, Buffet Boy (who looks rather like a Mighty Boosh character) follows her around all day. The conceit is that he can’t break Lisa’s resolve as she’s using Numan’s weight management program.
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Minimal special effects have been employed. Instead, model maker Dagmar Stefflova was brought in to create Buffet Boy’s costume.
The spot may be divisive, although if it is, that’s likely reflective of the anti-obesity medication (AOM) subject matter, coupled with the rather direct approach being taken to selling it in the ad.
With a fully integrated campaign planned across the UK through TV, BVOD, OOH, paid social, radio, podcasts, PR and digital marketing, it’s likely to have some reach.
We should expect more ads like these, as while a prescription is needed to buy the likes of Numan’s weight loss product, AOM appears to be becoming a more competitive sector.
Credits
Client: Numan
Title: Buffet Boy
Date: June 2025
Production company: MJZ
Client (Numan)
Creative direction: Numan Studios
Senior creatives: Sam Hughes & Michaela Pannese
Brand director: James Kennedy
Senior brand Lead: Hazal Karabulut
Senior producer: Amos Iskin
Senior post producer : Pranav Arya
Design director: Tom Myers
Designer: Emily Chin
Production Company (MJZ)
Director: Steve Ayson
Producer: Alicia Richards
Director of photography: Monika Lenczewska
1st Assistant director: Shakir Hafoudh
Production manager: Daniel Gay
Production designer: Jiri Matura
Costume designer: Dagmar Stefflova
Hair & makeup: Andrea McDonaldova
Casting director: Kate & Lou & Ro
Location manager: N/A
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Post-production (Quarry, Wave, UPP)
Editor: Ben Campbell
Post producer: Dilia Knobel
Grade: Emiliano Serantoni
Sound design: Wave + String and Tins
VFX: UPP
Music composition: Thirtytwo music
Voiceover: Cherie Lunghi
Talent
Buffet Boy: Tice Oakfield
Lisa: Naomi Emmanuel
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