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Project popes for protection

 
 
el d.
09:27 / 13.02.07
A thing I really don´t like about the roman catholic church is it´s policies on contraception. I mean, really, this is the 21st century. Most people hopefully know about aids, about the consequences of unwanted pregnancy, and generally want to enjoy life to the fullest.
Then there´s this 2,000 year-old institution telling them to either marry or never have sex at all. This is simply not doable for most people. So, I want to protest against the roman catholic church´s policy on condoms.

My idea: I got hold on some 200 condoms, packaged an sealed and viable until sometime 2008. I´m thinking of building a giant condom costume and distributing the repackaged condoms to the pilgrims.

The claim I want to print on the new packaging is:
If Jesus loved you today - he´d use a condom.

Questions: Is this just too offensive? Or not offensive enough? How do you get a condom costume 2 meters high? Should I rustle up some more condoms for the people? Wanna come and join the party?
 
 
Quantum
09:36 / 13.02.07
You need Pornography Bee.
 
 
Princess
22:12 / 16.02.07
Pornogrpahy Bee reporting for duty.
My first thought is that Catholic pilgrims + anti-Catholic type protester = blood splattered pilgrims + corpse.

Or maybe I'm just being dramatic.
 
 
el d.
10:29 / 20.02.07
well... we do need more atheist martyrs, don´t we?

No, seriously, I´m counting on being offensive, but just on the safe side of things... perhaps the slogan on the condoms is too much, but in my book, anything that generates publicity is good for sales. Or, in this case, meme-spreading.
 
 
TeN
16:32 / 25.02.07
I think it's better to do it in a way that's reasonable and doesn't piss off the people you're trying to "convert"
the slogan is fine, I think (maybe a tad too strong), but the costume is going too far to be effective
 
 
nighthawk
20:37 / 25.02.07
A thing I really don´t like about the roman catholic church is it´s policies on contraception. I mean, really, this is the 21st century. Most people hopefully know about aids, about the consequences of unwanted pregnancy, and generally want to enjoy life to the fullest.
Then there´s this 2,000 year-old institution telling them to either marry or never have sex at all. This is simply not doable for most people. So, I want to protest against the roman catholic church´s policy on condoms.

My idea: I got hold on some 200 condoms, packaged an sealed and viable until sometime 2008. I´m thinking of building a giant condom costume and distributing the repackaged condoms to the pilgrims.


A good approach might be to ask yourself what your aims are and how your planned action will help you acheive them. Right now it seem like your trying to deal with your own individual disatisfaction with the Catholic Church by confronting a community of people who (I presume?) you have no previous relations with. You might find this satisfying on a personal level, but I doubt you'll acheive much else, especially if you don't know any of these people already.

But what are your aims here? Are you trying to confront people? Offend them? What results do you expect from that?
 
 
Crestmere
11:11 / 28.02.07
Do you want to get people's attention or really piss them off?

There was something I wanted to do to really get people upset about the issue of third world poverty. The trouble is that it might just as well result in people getting really upset and pissed off at me for doing it.

And I'm not sure how well it would work in the Austrian scheme of things, its definatley aimed at the American culture.

What I wanted to do was set something in an African village and show people living in squalor and dying of AIDS. And then a white family walks through and they talk about how they sure are glad that so many n****** (the word that is the single most taboo word in English, I'm not even going to risk saying it here) are dying while they taunt starving kids with food. Then they get in their SUV and talk about returning home to the suburbs where things like that are burshed out of sight.

I think the reaction will either be that people end up realizing that this is a problem and that their passivity is the same as actively killing people or that they'll give up their passivity in terms of killing me and the entire message that third world poverty is a serious problem would be lost. The trouble is that I have absolutely no bloody idea how people would take it.

But I think that you might want to try something like that, put the issue so front and center that people have to deal with it, thats the only way that things are going to get done. Its stupid to say that substantial social change can happen through in small increments via natural processes, social evolution is much more a punctuated equilibrium.
 
 
calgodot
19:52 / 28.02.07
Go subtle. Just hand out the condoms, face to face, person to person. Say something gentle like, Condoms prevent AIDS. Be prepared to back it up with some prepared statements regarding the number of Christians (mostly Catholics) in Africa who are dying of AIDS. Smile. Turn the other cheek.

Keep the gentle, humble approach and you're less likely to get punched by a citizen or strong-armed by the polizia.

Worst thing that could happen: somebody yells at you, throws the condom onto the sidewalk and stomps it.

Thing about it is: a bunch of people do that, and the place is soon littered with condoms.

Agit-prop, with less agit and more prop.
 
 
Crestmere
21:36 / 28.02.07
Cal, I think your version would work ten times better then mine would.

Although I had another idea.

You know the new Pope looks an awful lot like Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter. Is there some way you could play off that image?
 
 
el d.
08:29 / 01.03.07
I think the new pope also looks a lot like Emperor Palpatine, in the Original Series...

Check it out!

Actually, I guess you´re right... a friendly, person-to-person approach is probably the best for convincing the people involved... But unfortunately, it won´t attract media attention... that´s the goal of the giant condom...

I´m quite tempted to try your approach, as it involves less costume-building, but somehow I really find the picture of a condom-style Shiva-Lingam handing out condoms to the people....
 
 
el d.
09:44 / 10.09.07
The project was quite successful.. got some support from my peeps at monochrom and ran around the streets shouting "Arrrrrrrrr!" at everyone... ( FSM - Inspired imagery worked best

If someone´s interested in reading the flyer, I´ll translate it to our lingua franca here...

As soon as the video is up, I´ll link to it in this little thread here, and hope that this will not be another empty prediction...

Next event is "Speak like a Pirate day", 19th september, and what kind of a pirate would I be if I didn´t celebrate that to the fullest?

Arrrrrrrr!

RAmen.
 
  
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