Nothing Is Perverse
August 17, 2007 7:39 AM   Subscribe

How to Market a Deadly Disease: Ten provocative examples of AIDS awareness campaigns from around the world. Here are some more [YouTube]. NSFW. Via. [Previously/related: 1, 2]
posted by veronica sawyer (5 comments total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
I think the most shocking thing about these ads is none of them are from America.
posted by Uther Bentrazor at 8:46 AM on August 17, 2007


Fascinating.

It's odd to me that even having a picture of a condom on a billboard can cause a freakout in the U.S.; the European ads are so directly about sex and safety, and they look both right and shocking to me.

More PSA (public service announcement) spots here and here flash, all with a focus on destigmatizing getting tested. The first link is to a PSA broadcast for U.S. audiences; the second links to PSAs for Caribbean audiences. Both are SFW.

full disclosure: I work for a place associated with these PSAs, but I wasn't at all involved in their creation.
posted by rtha at 8:46 AM on August 17, 2007


I think the most shocking thing about these ads is none of them are from America.

Yeah, it almost seems like the US ones have gotten milder over the years, too. I was poking around for equivalent American campaigns and I realized how toothless the contemporary red t-shirts will stop AIDS and the shoes and handbags will stop AIDS campaigns are in comparison to the David Kirby Benetton ad, which is 15 years old.

It bums me out that in 2007 we still attach a stigma to even getting tested.
posted by veronica sawyer at 9:36 AM on August 17, 2007


It pisses me off that in the US, AIDS-awareness ads of ANY KIND are NSFW. It's ridiculous. They should tack that shit to the corkboard in the break room right next to the Federal Minimum Wage laws and the Workman's Comp poster.
posted by mr_book at 10:01 AM on August 17, 2007


Unfortunately, the powers in charge of deciding such things in the US long ago decided that the only acceptable "awareness" campaigns around HIV/AIDS are ones that involve fear, loathing, and invisibility.
posted by blucevalo at 11:41 AM on August 17, 2007


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