October 30, 2001

10:23 PM

Haunted House = No STDs!"As visitors make their way through a dimly lit, S-shaped maze, they view startling, full-color photos of canker sores and genital warts on male and female genitalia infected with syphilis, chlamydia or gonorrhea. An empty casket at the end sends a message that death awaits anyone who does not practice safe sex."
posted by adrober (8 comments total)

Oh My God.

Sung to the tune of Frere Jacques:

Gonorrhea, chlamydia /
Herpes, STDs /
Some people give them /
Some people get them /
But not me. But not me.

Did you know some high school health classes still sing this song?
posted by j.edwards at 10:29 PM on October 30, 2001

An empty casket at the end sends a message that death awaits anyone who does not practice safe sex.

Silly people. Practicing safe sex won't keep you from dying.
posted by kindall at 11:34 PM on October 30, 2001

So wait, Rotton and Stileproject are putting on a haunted house?
posted by Mark at 6:37 AM on October 31, 2001

Yeesh. They don't include condoms in the bag o' goodies? Besides, I thought only the xian fundamentalists did the haunted-house-with-a-message thing.
posted by jburka at 6:38 AM on October 31, 2001

there's no way this would go on in my home town. showing photos of genitals to children (warted or no)?

Guys would come up and say nothing scares them," Whitlow said, "then before they could get around the corner ... I could hear them screaming."

yeah. whatever. i doubt those screams of terror were genuine. the worse i've ever heard anyone say when confronted with images of STD-ridden genitals was "Eeww."
posted by tolkhan at 8:47 AM on October 31, 2001

Interestingly, as I began to read this thread, another commercial for an STD treatment came on TV -- smiling, happy people in scenic locations, thrilled because they have genital warts or herpes, but now treating it is much easier! Three doses of medication instead of ten! Four days of cream applications instead of seven! Yay!

It seems that we need to find some societal balance between trying to horrify people with poster-sized worst case scenario photographs and these ads, which really make it seem like having an incurable, contagious STD is really no big deal anymore. Obviously, education (not scare tactic based) is the key. Where is the education?
posted by Dreama at 10:01 AM on October 31, 2001

you mean herpes isn't fun and happy beaches and being surrounded by beautiful people? so you're telling me i went out and got it for nothing? i feel gypped.
posted by tolkhan at 12:28 PM on October 31, 2001

"We want to scare their pants back on," said Elizabeth Frazier ..how's that for a sound byte, eh?
posted by ZachsMind at 10:08 PM on October 31, 2001