A haunting AIDS commercial reminiscent of Katamari Damacy.

December 20, 2005 1:44 PM

A haunting AIDS commercial reminiscent of Katamari Damacy.
posted by chunking express (25 comments total)

My! Earth is full of things!
posted by davros42 at 1:46 PM on December 20, 2005

At least now we know who patient zero is.
posted by pepcorn at 1:48 PM on December 20, 2005

Oh! I can feel it! I can feel the AIDS!
posted by Phantomx at 2:01 PM on December 20, 2005

it really is great--and so much of Africa really is being swept up and out by AIDS.
posted by amberglow at 2:06 PM on December 20, 2005

Does anyone know what the song is/what the words are?
posted by piers at 2:14 PM on December 20, 2005

You live all your days thinking that you'll never hear a "hauntg AIDS commercial" compared to Katamari Damacy, but then you open up MetaFilter..
posted by xmutex at 2:28 PM on December 20, 2005

Do you disagree with my assessment of the commercial xmutex? I think it works well.

The music is excellent. I also wish I knew who it was by.
posted by chunking express at 2:43 PM on December 20, 2005

This is very good, thanks chunking.
posted by soiled cowboy at 2:51 PM on December 20, 2005

Interesting take on the AIDS tragedy.
posted by raedyn at 3:00 PM on December 20, 2005

Very powerful. Especially in contrast to the empty, pointless Google Zeitgeist post.
posted by 327.ca at 3:13 PM on December 20, 2005

Especially in contrast to the empty, pointless Google Zeitgeist post.


I didn't mean to criticize the post, per se. More the idea that so much of our "progress" is wrapped up in presenting information in novel ways, rather than taking that data and doing something constructive with it.
posted by 327.ca at 3:15 PM on December 20, 2005

it's a lullaby, and i think "chela" is a bird?
posted by amberglow at 3:37 PM on December 20, 2005

Ok, wait, hang on a second. At the end of the clip it says:

Don't let AIDS gain more ground
Everyone must have access to treatment

Unless I'm mistaken, treatment does nothing to prevent AIDS from gaining any ground. Prevention stops AIDS from gaining more ground, treatment just prolongs the life of the infected person.

When taken individually, I agree with each line. We should strive to reduce the number of AIDS infections, and everyone should have access to treatment. However, we shouldn't provide treatment in an attempt to reduce the number of AIDS infections, since that would fail.
posted by darkness at 3:53 PM on December 20, 2005

A bit more info can be found here regarding the animation - however there isn't much, no information on the lullaby, and the page is Flash.

But you can download it and send it to a friend.
posted by jazon at 3:54 PM on December 20, 2005

Thank you for posting this. I think I'll help the MSF. Very powerful.
posted by hoskala at 4:12 PM on December 20, 2005

Good find!

If you're looking for worthy AIDS organizations to support, there's also the Stephen Lewis Foundation. This PSA [link goes to 10Mb MPEG, worth waiting for the download] was what hooked me.
posted by maudlin at 4:26 PM on December 20, 2005

I have never played Katmari Darcy, but I have seen Critters 2. In other words, the commercial reminded me of the great Critter Ball!
posted by the biscuit man at 5:29 PM on December 20, 2005

Sending things to earth...
Programs... Dreams... AIDS....
posted by AaronRaphael at 8:10 PM on December 20, 2005

Do we really need to be advertising AIDS? It's pretty awful disease. The Herpies ads on TV are bad enough, 'you can get over your outbreaks in just a couple days'. Well I guess that's progress, but wouldn't you be better off just not having it?

Advertising AIDS just seems unconscionable!
posted by Paris Hilton at 8:22 PM on December 20, 2005

Does anyone know what the song is/what the words are?

Ka-ta-ma-ri da-ma-cy-y-y-y-y!

dah doo doo doo-doo-doo-doo-doo
posted by ruddhist at 8:25 PM on December 20, 2005

Unless I'm mistaken, treatment does nothing to prevent AIDS from gaining any ground.

...a 1994 study by the National Institutes of Health ... found that giving ZDV to an HIV-positive pregnant woman and to her baby at birth decreased by twothirds the risk of passing the infection on to her baby. Eight percent of babies of women treated with ZDV became infected, compared with 25 percent of babies of untreated women.
posted by George_Spiggott at 9:47 PM on December 20, 2005

George Spiggott nails it. Notice that the lullaby is sung by a woman holding her baby as the ball approaches in the last shot.
posted by [expletive deleted] at 6:12 AM on December 21, 2005

Also Darkness, leaving people to die from AIDS when treatments exist is cruel.
posted by chunking express at 6:25 AM on December 21, 2005

"This katamari feels AIDS-ish. Not that we know what that means."

Thanks, now I'm going to feel bad when I roll up people in the game.
posted by Sibrax at 8:09 AM on December 21, 2005

Nitpicking the language aside, I think that MSF is a net force for good in Africa and the fight against AIDS. It's the Bush administration we need to convince of the need for prevention. But wait, that involves using condoms, and condoms are immoral. They should just stop having sex!

I'm going to go roll up people and houses now.
posted by salad spork at 11:09 AM on December 21, 2005