Viral Man proves a hit with students

HE’S green, covered in spikes with a wild wig and rather nasty habits – but he has proved a big hit with some Warrington students.
Viral Man is proving “infectious” with staff and students at the University of Chester’s Warrington campus.
The character, the personification of Swine Flu, is spreading the key messages about good respiratory and hand hygiene, how the virus affects sufferers and where to seek treatment.
He also has a growing following on his Facebook site www.facebook.com/viralman.
Viral Man is a familiar sight across the campus and in other university-owned premises.
Professor Tim Wheeler, vice-chancellor, said: “Viral Man is generating quite a buzz at a time when the university is at its busiest, welcoming new students and staff, and when the country as a whole is bracing itself for the second wave of the pandemic.
“Some real imagination has inspired the campaign, which is both attention-grabbing and fun.”
The character is interviewed on the university’s Intranet where he talks about his frustration at trying to infect people when they are using anti-bacterial gel and tissues to fight him. New students have also been given viral man key rings and stickers.
Jayne Dodgson, director of corporate communications, said: “There’s some reverse psychology involved. Although common sense dictates everyone should be wary of Swine Flu, Viral Man is so charismatic that people are being drawn to him and therefore take more notice of the serious advice which they have seen or heard hundreds of times in association with the national flu campaign and may have started to become ‘immune’ to.”
The university commissioned four recent students, Neil Martin and Hannah Bradshaw from Graphics Design and Will Bollen and Jerry Clark from Advertising, two of who have just won an international award for one of their projects, to devise the Swine Flu awareness-raising campaign.
Neil said: “Through developing the campaign we not only learnt a considerable amount about Swine Flu, which we were then able to share in a user-friendly way, but also built up a body of work which forms part of our portfolios as we embark on our creative careers after graduation.”
Pictured: The creative team (back) Jerry Clark and Will Bollen, (front) Hannah Bradshaw as a student with a temperature and Neil Martin as Viral Man.