Health Nutz on APTN makes innovative use of social media in promotion, delivery

Ayogo Games is used to hitting new media gold, but with their latest venture, a television show on APTN, they may have struck comedy gold.

The program is called Health Nutz, and it follows the (mis)adventures of former pro hockey player Buzz Riel, an alcoholic, pot-smoking gambler who has squandered his savings and insurance money. He lives in a trailer and is out of options until he comes upon an idea for a new scam: he finds out that if he can stay sober, he can inherit his estranged father’s juice bar and patented energy drink.

Too bad he has no intentions of cleaning up. He’d rather fake sobriety to his father’s friends and associates, traditional members of the First Nations community, take the juice bar for himself and flip it for a nice profit to a land developer.

The show evokes the feel of two other root-for-the-bad-guy comedies, Trailer Park Boys and Eastbound and Down. Riel, played by Kevin Loring, is a thoroughly detestable character, hilariously incompetent and a downright jerk. His adversaries are the good guys, honest folks who love his father’s juice bar and genuinely looking to help Riel, thinking that he has their best interests in mind: yoga instructors, health freaks, naturopaths and other naïve characters at the juice bar are all waiting to get screwed by Riel and his greed.

Ayogo Games is promoting the program with all of their social media acumen brought to bear. Along with a feed on Twitter and page on Facebook, the company has developed a Facebook game based on the show’s characters. They’re also heavily promoting the show on YouTube, offering webisodes, teasers and other content to viewers.

For more info on Health Nutz, check out the show’s website here.