Rufus the Messy Monster

E. coli is a nasty bacteria. It can make children under four very sick. The best way to prevent infection is proper handwashing, but how do you get children under four to wash their hands properly every time? By letting them have fun!

To help make handwashing fun, I wrote an animation called Rufus the Messy Monster for safefood. Rufus gives children an excuse to blow raspberries and say words like ‘poo’. The animation screened in cinemas around the island of Ireland as well as online. To date, the animation has over 898,000 views on YouTube.

We also had to teach parents, teachers and caregivers about the dangers of E. coli. So, I wrote a suite of engaging radio and out-of-home ads, digital and social content, and printed resources.

I also wrote the rhyming children’s book Wash Your Hands Rufus. This book and additional handwashing resources like posters and activities are available in creches and preschools across the Island of Ireland. The book has been translated into Irish, Polish and Ukrainian and is also available as an interactive pdf story on the safefood website. A life-size Rufus has appeared at The Ploughing Championships and in schools!

The campaign went live in 2017 and is still going strong today. Rufus really came into his own during COVID when washing your hands became even more important. Updated digital and social assets were created to help parents to teach their children to wash their hands properly at home.

Client: safefood
Agency: McCann Dublin
Art Director: Aoife Flynn