[XandGash]

You know that Nike commercial where everyone in the city is playing Tag? When I saw it, I immediately thought “that would be cool.” I’ve been thinking of a way to make it possible since I saw it, but it seemed that there were a couple of questions to be answered, like how would people know that the game had started, hot would you get people to join in, and if there were people who weren’t playing, how would you know who was playing? The last part generated an answer that would make this not only possible, but extremely important at the same time. I figured that maybe people needed to wear something, like a certain color, but then I thought of that backfiring with a gang-like situation occurring. Then I thought that people could wear something that everyone has, but doesn’t go around with all the time. As I pondered what that item could be, I realized that there was something that people could wear that would send a message...

...Picture this. This game of Tag could be used to promote AIDS awareness. If all participating people wore AIDS ribbons, or maybe armbands, it could have a completely different meaning. Ribbon or band wearers would represent every sexually active person. Every one is potentially “IT”, but you don’t know who, so the message would be that you don’t know who has AIDS, so be careful and trust no one.

Note: In my neighborhood we don’t play Tag, we play a game called Manhunt. The difference is that once someone is tagged, they’re it for the rest of the game. So instead of having just one person be “IT”, it spreads. This might be an alternative to show a parallel between the game, and the AIDS epidemic.

This use of the game also helps answer the question of how to get people to know about it. The internet and word of mouth are good ways, there are many others. If this was made out to be a big event, I’m sure that plenty of companies would like to sponsor the movement and help it gain awareness. And perhaps Nike, the company that gave me this idea in the first place, could volunteer to help manufacture the bands. They could be sold in convenience stores for like 50 cents or a dollar and the proceeds would go to AIDS research.

So spread the word. Perhaps we could get this started.