| 06/05/2010 Topsy Foundation’s video campaign showing the dramatic and transformative life-saving effect of ARVs on patients with AIDS |
Topsy Foundation’s video campaign showing the dramatic and transformative life-saving effect of ARVs on patients with AIDS
The Topsy Foundation has produced a one minute advertisement showing the dramatic and transformative life-saving effect of ARVs on a patient with AIDS.
The Topsy Foundation seeks to address the effects of HIV and AIDS by intervening in the lives of individuals infected and affected by HIV and AIDS, as well as addressing the plight of affected children, by attending to their basic needs. The Topsy Foundation partners with rural communities, empowering people infected with, and affected by, HIV and AIDS, through medical care, social support and skills development (topsy.org.za).
The short film clip shows a healthy woman lying in bed – as time moves on she becomes withered and desperately frail and on the verge of death. However at the end of the sequence it is revealed that the time lapse had been reversed; her desperately ill state was in fact the first day she began treatment of ARVs, and the film documents her return to dramatic return to health over 90 days.
We're all familiar with the spectre of the person who gets AIDS and wastes away before our eyes. But what most people don't realize is that the recovery of an AIDS sufferer on antiretrovirals (ARV’s) is every bit as dramatic. In just 90 days, a person can regain all the health they've lost. It's called 'the Lazarus effect.' And Topsy's newly launched television commercial is a pure demonstration of this.
Working together with Ogilvy Johannesburg and Egg Films, we located Selinah when she was in the very advanced stages of AIDS. We started her on treatment and filmed her every day for 90 days. The transformation is absolutely real. We used no special techniques and tricks in post production. Selinah fully supports our campaign - she wants everyone to know that she was brought back to life purely by ARV’s and her will to live (topsy.org.za)
To view the Topsy Foundation commercial, please visit topsy.org.za or click here.
Project RED and HBO are also launching a similarly themed 30-minute film, ‘The Lazarus Effect’, on May 24, which also documents the dramatic health gains achieved in short periods of time by patients with advanced AIDS.
On May 24th, "The Lazarus Effect" by director Lance Bangs and executive producer Spike Jonze premieres on HBO, YouTube and Channel 4 (UK). The 30 minute film illustrates the transformative effect of life-saving antiretroviral medicine through the stories of four HIV+ people in Zambia - Connie, Paul, Constance and Bwalya. By taking the ARV medicine – 2 life-saving pills that cost around 40 cents a day – in as few as 40 days, the medicine can help bring people back to life.
HIV/AIDS is a preventable and treatable disease yet it has killed more than 20 million people in Africa. In 2002 only 50,000 people had access to the medication due to its high cost. Today, thanks to reduced costs and increased access, more than 3 million people in Africa are now receiving treatment. Still, 3,800 people die every day in sub-Saharan Africa from AIDS. “The Lazarus Effect” film shows that this needn’t be the case (http://www.joinred.com/#lazarusEffect)
South African residents will be able to view the short film on YouTube from May 24. |
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