Future Didactics

Pa$$ On

Aviv Hirsch

Pa$$ On is an animated commercial for a fictional company that offers the service of people praying for you in exchange for money. Through hyperbole, it explores the future of outsourcing parts of people’s personal lives. 

The animation follows a typical commercial structure and mainly focuses on the dialogue between a generic wealthy woman and the company mascot, an angel. The company in the commercial, Pa$$ On, is targeted towards rich people who want to pray to get into heaven but are too busy. The concept is that the consumer can pay one of the company's workers to pray in factory-like churches for them. The prayer then gets transferred as though the customer was the one praying, thus helping the customer get into heaven.  

The commercial is hand-animated with a simple art style. This style serves to make the animation easier and to also create a sense of innocence through the association with cartoons. Throughout the commercial, background characters are working both in the woman’s home and in the company’s factories. These figures are simple shadows compared to the main characters; this is to show how little the commercials intended audience would care about them. The animation draws inspiration from monetized religion, such as televangelism and indulgences. It is also a commentary on current outsourcing practices in the US such as housecleaning and nannies. It questions how far this outsourcing culture will go. This short is not intended to be a realistic prediction of the future, it seeks to be thought-provoking and entertaining.

GROWTH

Kody White

animation

Amiyr Ahmad