Despite media coverage and health education efforts pertaining to AIDS, young people in particular are still engaging in sexual behavior that puts them at risk. This folly is rooted partly in misunderstandings, including the notion that the HIV cocktail—a mixture of potent drugs—is somehow a cure for AIDS. But the cocktail is neither a cure nor easy to take, carrying potentially damaging side effects that can make the medication in and of itself an ordeal for patients to endure.
To bring that message home to Canada’s youth, Vancouver, B.C.-based ad agency Rethink teamed with Global Mechanic, a Vancouver production house best known for its varied forms of animation. Titled "Petri Dish," this abstract animation :30 opens on a pill, which seems to be on a glass slide that we’re looking at through a microscope’s viewfinder.
Then the pill starts multiplying, akin to bacteria spreading and growing exponentially. In voiceover a man puts the action in perspective: "One for the HIV," he says, referring to the lone oblong pill. It changes shape and a pair of round pills split away from it. "Two for the vomiting from the one for the HIV." In another mutation, three capsules appear in our viewfinder. "Three for the runs from the two for the vomiting from the one for the HIV," the male voice drones on.
Four, then five, more pills of different shapes and colors pop into view. They are for the liver damage resulting from the nutrients lost due to the vomiting from the first pill for the HIV.
The pills and bacteria multiply endlessly, like a Petri dish sample going wildly out of control. As a switch to a higher magnification under the microscope shows a relentlessly growing colony of pills and germs, the voiceover offers a sobering time frame: "Then comes the afternoon."
The magnification increases yet again, revealing a seemingly endless array of squirming pills filling the frame. "Then comes every day for the rest of your life," concludes the voiceover.
Finally, the screen clears, to be replaced by a graphic of a packaged condom, against a still, blue-gray background. As the sight of this neatly packaged prophylactic fills the screen, a supered rhetorical question appears: "Cocktail or Condom?" The PSA is tagged by the logo for the AIDS Vancouver organization.
The Rethink creative ensemble consisted of creative directors Chris Staples and Ian Grais, art director Mark Hesse, copywriter Rob Tarry and producer Lynn Bonham.
Bruce Alcock of Global Mechanic directed the spot, with a support cast that included lead animator Hannah Cho, animators Paul Boyd and Marv Newland, artworker Hilary Denny and executive producer/line producer Dawn Rubin.
Murray Price of Koko Productions, Vancouver, served as music composer/sound designer/audio mixer and producer.
The project’s genesis came in the form of Global Mechanic’s initiative. The production house approached AIDS Vancouver, as well as Rethink, about creating a message that would register with the young-adult demographic. The Global Mechanic team deployed a mix of animated disciplines, among them, pencil animation that was art-worked with oil paint; stop motion; and compositing, which added layers of dirt, hair and liquid to create a Petri dish environment. The animation studio also added a film-grain feel and flickering lights to further blend the disparate elements.
"Petri Dish" began airing nationally in Canada last month.
