KesselsKramer's campaign for Nemo Science Museum celebrates weird body facts

KesselsKramer has created a weird and wonderful campaign for Amsterdam’s Nemo Science Museum, inspired by the idea of the average person. Developed for the museum’s Humania exhibition, the animation-based campaign brings to life strange facts about the human species, including that we share 50% of our genes with a cabbage and that, on average, we pass wind 17 times a day.

The brief was simple, KesselsKramer explains, “How can we still celebrate people in a special way if this is now done by every bank, insurance or telecom company?” The answer was to develop some serious strange-looking bodies, toying with the idea of ‘average’ and ‘special’. Working with animator Marlies van der Wel, who developed the collages from photography by Jean-Pierre Khazem, the odd characters were made from a medley of noses, arms, hair and body parts that aren’t even body parts at all.

The studio then put these figures into scenarios that brought to life 14 facts, including that we spend 1.5 hours a day eating on average, can’t lick our elbows and have ears that never stop growing. The animations were then used to create a film, with a matter-of-fact voiceover explaining the imagery. KesselsKramer says, “In the campaign we see The Average Person as a character, but the text nevertheless speaks for a whole group of people. In this way, every fact about the average person holds a double meaning.”

The film can be seen at the museum itself and online, and the animations have also been used to inform a TV commercial, as well as GIFs, social media assets and an outdoor and print campaign. Humania at Nemo Science Museum opens on 23 November.