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May 13, 2007 1:50 PM   Subscribe

Whether you think they're good PSA's or not, these French Aids Awareness ads are wonderful.
(Definitely NSFW, Single Link, Wired Blog, Animated walrus, cowboy and squid sex)
posted by Lord_Pall (31 comments total) 13 users marked this as a favorite
 
I'm more aware of French AIDS Awareness than I am about AIDS.
posted by jimmythefish at 1:55 PM on May 13, 2007 [1 favorite]


In case anyone else is wondering, this is not the same stuff that we had a couple of weeks ago.
posted by teleskiving at 2:00 PM on May 13, 2007


YES! France for the win!
posted by Kattullus at 2:01 PM on May 13, 2007


I somehow found some of those images just as terrifying as the scorpion/spider sex ones.
posted by piratebowling at 2:11 PM on May 13, 2007


Thought this was a double. But it isn't. Loved the grotesquely horrifying images in that post.

But the animation and music in this post rock! Woo hoo! Some other, similar, fun and sexy ads in English and French.
posted by nickyskye at 2:21 PM on May 13, 2007


I saw the 'sugar baby love' one (3rd) in the cannes advertising festival, and all other advertising was totally tame compared to it. These are superb...
posted by niccolo at 2:28 PM on May 13, 2007


I love how in the middle one targeted at women the girl falls for a studly white ski instructor but then has to hunt for his manhood with a microscope, so in the next scene she goes online and looks for a black man, who turns out to be so well endowed she falls through a hole in the street to escape.

Racism is so cute.
posted by spitbull at 2:34 PM on May 13, 2007 [5 favorites]


Absolutely adorable! I have a feeling this might speak to the youngsters a bit more directly than Chastity Rings or whatever the hell we're tossing at them here in the US.
(And seriously, a Castro joke in a sex PSA!! Damn you, The French, and the myriad ways you kick our asses in the culture department!)
posted by maryh at 2:36 PM on May 13, 2007


This serves equally well as a public service announcement about the dangers of creating computer animation while smoking way too much fucking dust.
posted by The Straightener at 2:53 PM on May 13, 2007


Those are lovely! While I don't love stereotypes of black men with gigantic genitalia or little queer boys with dolls, on the whole, all three videos to a pretty stand up job and engage in a way that nothing over here ever seems to.

Still, as spitbull says - I could do without the racism.
posted by coolhappysteve at 2:53 PM on May 13, 2007


Another French AIDS awareness PSA, here.

(Youtube vid, NSFW)

They're certainly not worried about offending cultural sensitivities!
posted by darkstar at 2:56 PM on May 13, 2007 [1 favorite]


Well, they covered many more sexual variations than I expected them too, but were obviously remiss in failing to depict a horse wearing a condom while penetrating a guy from Enumclaw...
posted by Tube at 2:58 PM on May 13, 2007 [1 favorite]


Racism? Okay, bad. But here in the US we've been slammed over the last 6 years with fucking abstinence programs, possibley the dumbest and most counter-productive anti-AIDs and anti-STD programs ever produced. These French ads are such a step up from what we've been seeing here that it's hard for me to get too angry about the cultural insensitivities.
posted by maryh at 3:20 PM on May 13, 2007


I'd seen the gay ad before, the other two are just as great. Thanks.
posted by Arturus at 3:32 PM on May 13, 2007


Count me in the yuck/yawn/huh?/unwonderful column. I may be the only one.
posted by tula at 3:46 PM on May 13, 2007


I found the difference between the ads interesting. The one centering around a straight man involves his quest for interesting, safe, sex. But the one for women centers around a quest to get married. All of the young man's sexual encounters ended with a transition to another sexual encounter, hers tended to end with a rejected offer of romance. Stereotyping indeed.

The third, the one for gay men was actually quite disturbing in its almost normalization of violence against homosexuals. The other ads didn't involve any violence...

Note also that the only ad with a universally upbeat tone was the straight man. The woman was regularly heartbroken, symbology of being used and discarded was present in both the straight woman and gay man ads, and of course there was the violence in the gay ad. Message: only straight men get to have fun sex without being used, heartbroken, or battered.

Better than the US "sex is bad and will kill you!!!!111!1!1!" ads, but lacking in many ways.
posted by sotonohito at 4:22 PM on May 13, 2007


sonohito, thanks for summing up what I felt was disturbing about the ads. I couldn't put my finger on it before, but that trend is definitely it.
posted by piratebowling at 4:32 PM on May 13, 2007


I think they're great, and the expression of actual human intelligence behind them is admirable.
posted by trip and a half at 4:33 PM on May 13, 2007 [1 favorite]


Diz, these ads gave me a boner. Please advize.
posted by vronsky at 4:56 PM on May 13, 2007


AIDS awareness tip of the day: Always use a condom when giving or receiving handjobs. (Bonus tip: Giant squids are hot!)
posted by TimTypeZed at 6:07 PM on May 13, 2007


Should I'ze get some ice? Or maybe an ottoman?
posted by vronsky at 6:30 PM on May 13, 2007


The third, the one for gay men was actually quite disturbing in its almost normalization of violence against homosexuals.

I don't think ignoring the violence is going to help anyone. Anytime you bring these topics to light, you risk desensitizing the audience -- but that's still better than outright ignoring it.

I do agree (somewhat) with the gender stereotypes, although I like the sexual freedom aspect of it -- that is, no one is berating her for having an active sex life.

</overthinking>
posted by spiderskull at 7:10 PM on May 13, 2007 [1 favorite]


Count me in the yuck/yawn/huh?/unwonderful column. (emphasis mine)

I'm curious about the "yuck" response.
posted by spiderskull at 7:10 PM on May 13, 2007


Uh, to clarify, I meant "active sex life with multiple partners."
posted by spiderskull at 7:11 PM on May 13, 2007


The goal of a PSA is not to tiptoe gently through the minefield of every individual viewer's sensibilities. The goal of a PSA is to get watched and to be remembered.

In this case, I think the use of stereotypes serves these goals, through condensation and humor.
posted by Western Infidels at 8:40 PM on May 13, 2007


Yuck to that lollipop song, first of all, then the stereotyping is that sotonohito pointed out. And this style of animation makes sex look mechanical and a little creepy--like the marionettes in Team America: World Police, but that was played for gross out laughs.
posted by tula at 8:48 PM on May 13, 2007


I loved these. The ads definitely offend American sensibilities; they're too sexually explicit for the conservative crowd, too many stereotypes for the progressives. Me, I cringed at the gay bashing scene.

But a wonderful thing about French people is they don't spend a lot of time analyzing and getting wound up about stuff like this. I think it probably plays pretty well here.
posted by Nelson at 12:53 AM on May 14, 2007



This would never ever ever ever ever ever ever ever get shown in the US.

Actually, I could imagine it showing up on HBO. Now that would be a thing.

To toss my .02$ in, I thought they were crass and resorted to stereotype (swimming in boobs - so, you know... uh... uh... uh... uh... but anyway) and got their message across ("lots of ways to have fun, only one way to be safe") very effectively. The ads targeted to the gay community about meth come close. here

The chastity rings (pledging her yoni to daddy (it does not get much creepier than that - unless daddy is doing the 'de-flowering' (which seems to be the subtext)) -what is up with that? ) are interesting symbologically but utterly worthless in the face of RedBull and Vodka and whatever else those crazy kids are into these days...
posted by From Bklyn at 12:57 AM on May 14, 2007 [1 favorite]


Those are awesome, thank you so much for the post.
posted by Skorgu at 7:59 AM on May 14, 2007


Very very cute! I imagine these are fairly effective ads since they communicate to young people by giving a more acurate portrait of their lives.
posted by jeffburdges at 2:20 PM on May 14, 2007


All of them had something "wrong" about them. The straight man will screw anything that moves, as long as it's not old I suppose.

The woman is searching for the perfect guy, not too big (Though it seemed like she was having a wonderful time before the ridiculous condom showed up), not too small, not too freaky, though I did laugh at the leather boy with the drilldo and plunger.

The gay man that loves playing with dolls and the violence in the animation. Though I find it interesting that, to me, the gay man came across as less promiscuous than the straight man.

Anyway, despite those flaws, it got the message across. Use a goddamn condom, even if it has a caterpillar painted on it.
posted by Talanvor at 2:14 AM on May 15, 2007


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