"Sexy fingers" video for the rapid finger prick HIV test

It was only released a couple of weeks ago, but already a new HIV prevention video in France is creating the anticipated stir on the Net.

Sexy fingers (screenshot from video)

While YouTube has slapped a "potentially inappropriate content for some users" warning for those thinking about watching the video and requiring them to verify that they're adult enough by signing in first, the French-based video sharing website Dailymotion seems to have no such qualms.

As Laetitia Reboulleau writes in the French edition of the monthly women's magazine Marie Claire reactions to "Sexy fingers" video have been mixed.

"There are those who find it 'shocking'," she writes, "while other simply fail to see the link between its content and the rapid finger prick HIV test."

Sexy fingers (screenshot from video)

Launched by AIDES, a French association involved in the fight against HIV and viral hepatitis, and created by the JWT advertising agency, the "Sexy fingers" video is part of a new campaign in France to promote the use of the rapid finger prick HIV test.

The monthly gay magazine Têtu describes the video as "simple, original and rather sexy, using animation throughout to show the various sexual activities that can be achieved with just one finger."

And that's the link to the rapid test according to Floriane Cutler, AIDES director of communications.

"We want to create a buzz to make people realise how easy it is to be tested," she says.

"It's a video for everyone and while it's making the point that the test is a simple one, it's only meant to be show a 'tendency' (as in a pregnancy test) and not a definitive result," she adds.

"Of course it should be followed up by a proper HIV test."

Sexy fingers (screenshot from video)

Alongside the video there's also a website with an Android application allowing users to play a game, all clearly aimed at a younger generation.

And it's being backed up by an AIDES campaign this summer to offer finger prick testing by specially-trained volunteers in nightclubs and bars, initially in the French capital and then later across the country.

As far as the association is concerned it's meant to make getting the test almost as familiar as talking about sex in the first place.

But, as Reboulleau points out in Marie Claire, there are those who question how people will react to being given the news that they've tested positive in front of their friends.

Sexy fingers (screenshot from video)

Back to that video though, and whatever you think of it - whether it works or misses the point entirely - it's good to see the folk at YouTube taking a stand on the moral well-being of those who it deems potentially inappropriate viewers.

Since when has a campaign encouraging people to get themselves tested warranted a warning - no matter how suggestive it might (or might not) be?


Sexy Fingers (2011) par AIDES-association

A musical tribute to Rachida Dati's "inflation-fellatio" slip of the tongue

French rapper Dirty Dahn has been at it again.

French rapper Dirty Dahn (screeenshot from "Amoreux 2 Rachida"

The self-confessed Rachida Dati admirer has paid tribute to the former French justice minister in his latest video and in particular to the much publicised television interview last month during which a slip of the tongue had her replace "inflation" with the word "fellatio".

While that blunder made the headlines both in France and abroad, for Dahn, and his sidekick Richie Adams, it was far from being unintended.

Dirty Dahn (left) and Richie Adams (screeenshot from "Amoreux 2 Rachida"

In fact it was just the excuse the pair needed to release a follow-up to their 2009 offering "Amoureux de Rachida" in which the pair lamented Dati stepping down from the government and "exiling herself" as a member of the European parliament.

This time around Dahn has reworked the 1989 Richard Marx (does anyone remember him?) hit "Right here waiting" in his own inimitable style to come up with "Amoreux 2 Rachida".

It is, as the introduction to the video makes clear, a song written with the conviction that Dati's slip-up was "a signal meant for his ears" and it reawakened hope in him after "several months spent in depression following the failure of his relationship with the former justice minister."

Indeed those are pretty much the sentiments expressed in the lyrics too of a video which has become something of an Internet hit in France since it was released at the beginning of this month.

So sit back, enjoy and swoon along with Dahn in his ode to Dati courtesy of Dailymotion.


AMOUREUX 2 RACHIDA feat. Richie Adams
envoyé par dirty-dahn. - Gag, sketch et parodie humouristique en video.

René la Taupe tops the French charts

René la Taupe (or René the mole) first hit the top of the French singles charts in September.

And now, five weeks later, the "virtual singing character" is still there, keeping off the likes of international stars (and real human beings) such as Shakira and Katy Perry.

Ah yes, from the country that has brought the world singers that include Edith Piaf to Charles Aznavour, or Serge Gainsbourg to Vanessa Paradis and not forgetting Carla Bruni-Sarkozy (Italian by birth, French by marriage) along the way, comes a little fellow that is...well "annoying" might be an appropriate world.

"Mignon mignon" is the critter's second hit single and, according to the entry on Wikipedia, took lyricist Séverine Thomazo all of seven minutes to write.

And the result of all that hard work has brought France and the world the following (first verse)

"Ce qui me plait chez toi
C’est ton petit bidon
Tes petites poignées d’amour
Je trouve ça trop mignon
Même si les autres dans la rue
Te trouvent un peu trop gras
Pour moi c’est confortable
Quand tu me prends dans tes bras"

Translated as:

"What I like about you
Is your little tummy,
I find your little love handles
Just too cute
Even if others in the street
Find you a little tubby
For me it's really snug
When you take me in your arms"

Ahem. All right.

Perhaps not Grammy award-winning material, but a commercial success nevertheless.

You want more?

Well there's the accompanying video of course available on YouTube and Dailymotion.

Wander over to Facebook and you'll find thousands of "friends" on both the pro and anti René la Taupe pages

And naturally there's a blog which tells you how to download the remixed ringtone.

That's right - ringtone.

Move over Myspace, the mobile 'phone is now clearly THE place to launch a perhaps short-lived but all-the-same lucrative singing career.

Because France's top-selling song is from an "artist" created to help promote and market a mobile 'phone content provider.

A Christmas song is rumoured to be in the works.

Hooray!

René la Taupe - Mignon Mignon (Version longue) Vidéo ambrase13 sélectionnée dans Humour

Carla Bruni-Sarkozy sings David Bowie

Music fans, pin back your ears. France's first lady, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, has been back in the recording studio.

Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, screenshot from YouTube video of Top of the Pops performance on France 2 television

She's one of many artists to be found on a new double album to be released next month paying tribute to one of rock and pop's undisputed greats, David Bowie.

The album is due for release next month with all proceeds going to the charity War Child which is a "network of independent organisations, working across the world to help children affected by war".


Bruni-Sarkozy's contribution is a cover of Bowie's 1986 hit "Absolute beginners" and, as Britain's Daily Mail reports, the 42-year-old former model-turned singer and now first lady is being "mocked mercilessly in France after having recorded arguably the most dreadful David Bowie cover of all time".

While that's perhaps being a little harsh and a tad exaggerated (there have been some positive reviews to her interpretation) to be absolutely frank it's not a patch on the original.

But there again Bruni-Sarkozy, with three albums under her belt, isn't exactly in the same category as Bowie.

In her rendition, Bruni-Sarkozy proves to be true to her "style" with the same simple production as can be heard on her previous recordings and of course that delightful rasping, gasping, sensuous voice.

Once again though, perhaps it's best to judge for yourself with this clip, courtesy of Dailymotion.

Enjoy.


Carla Bruni - Absolute Beginners
envoyé par sue_ellen123. - Regardez plus de clips, en HD !

And just in case you've forgotten how it really SHOULD sound...here's the master himself.

French TV channel slaps daytime ban on singer's video

Clearly one of France's national television channels, M6, is taking its responsibility to look after the moral welfare of this country's youth seriously.

It has decided that the video accompanying singer-songwriter Raphaël's latest single is "too violent to be shown during daytime hours" and has banished it to late at night or the wee hours of the morning when young children and teenagers are safely tucked up in bed.

screenshot of French singer Raphaël from his latest video

The problem, it would appear to be, is the sight of a "frail young woman being kidnapped by two hooded men" in the clip of "Bar De L'hôtel".

Yes the broadcaster, whose sister channel W9 recently offer viewers of all ages the chance to watch the delights and saucy goings-on of "Dilemma"; reality TV that left little to the imagination (albeit shown at a respectable past-the watershed hour) has decided that Raphaël's video oversteps the mark.

As the website Le Post points out, it might be less graphic and certainly far from being as violent as other clips that M6 regularly broadcasts during the day, but as far as the channel is concerned the agreement it has with the television watchdog Conseil Supérieur de l'Audiovisuel, CSA, means that it has an obligation to protect the sensibilities of younger viewers.

Fans and the simply curious though need have no fear of not being able to see the video.

It is of course out there on the Net for everyone to see, on the singer's official website, YouTube, Dailymotion and and elsewhere, and perhaps thanks to M6 is happily picking up a steady flow of hits.

Take a look and judge for yourselves.