I don’t have all that much to say about the NYC Board of Health’s HIV-prevention advertisement, because I’ve said it all before. It’s pretty disheartening to see powerful organizations using fear to get a message across.
But, anyway, here’s a short schpiel.
This advertisement is completely ineffectual. This might sound inflammatory, but I’m deeply offended by this ad, and see no other way to respond to it except to be direct. All it does is attempt to instill fear into its viewers.
So lets go over this frame by frame. “When you get HIV, it’s never just HIV,” a scary deep voice tells us. “You’re at risk for dozens of diseases even if you take medication.”
First of all, that is a blatant oversimplification of any factual data about HIV. HIV does effect the immune system, which can potentially put an individual at risk for other diseases. However it is not as simple as ‘you are at risk even if you take medication.’ Because, to steal a catchphrase, HIV isn’t just HIV. It’s not a virus that manifests itself the same way in every HIV positive person.
And next we have close up images of the potential diseases you will contract! Osteoporosis! Dementia! And, in all of its bloody glory… ANAL CANCER!
Because everyone that has HIV also has anal cancer.
And, the final frame: “Stay HIV free. Always use a condom.” Good advice, but I barely noticed it.
OH! And! Everyone who is at risk for HIV is male. Clearly. I’m surprised that all of the men weren’t wearing rainbow pins to remind us that HIV is a gay disease, too.
The real kicker for me is that on YouTube the advertisement is filed under the category of “education.” There is nothing educational about this video. It’s a scare tactic that reinforces the stereotype that being HIV positive means your life is over and you will never be able to lead a fulfilling life. Sure, it tells its viewers to always use a condom, but how about reinforcing that with facts about barrier methods rather than with pictures of bloody anuses?
I kind of like it.
I think the standard has swung too far to the other side. There has been so much on the ‘You can live a productive, fulfilling life with HIV’ side of messages, that the ‘YOU DON’T WANT TO BE HIV+ IN THE FIRST PLACE’ message has been getting lost.
We shouldn’t be afraid to say straight out that contracting HIV is bad, takes away from your life and your future opportunities, and lowers your immune system to expose you to higher risk of other problems.
A lot of people today believe that AIDS has been cured, or that it is just a little infection like any other. This is a result of being afraid to offend anyone, and reinforcing the ‘you can have a life anyways’ message.
It is good that people understand that you don’t need to be afraid of being in a room with someone who is HIV+, or sharing a drinking fountain, or shaking hands.
But it is not good that the ugly facts of living with it have been glossed over.
If fear of the unpleasantness of the results is the only thing that keeps people using condoms and not contracting venereal diseases, that’s just fine by me! It works!
I thought the men-only bit was odd. I suppose it was targeted advertising at one high-risk segment of the population, but it seemed silly.
I wouldn’t think gay men were less likely to hear the message if there were women in it too, and that would make it more relevant to a larger population which is also at risk.
I think this ad is pretty obviously aimed at the “undercover brothers” who don’t consider themselves gay, they just have sex with men on the “down low” while carrying on with their heterosexual relationships and who think AIDS is a gay disease, thus they are somehow immune from it. I noticed the use of a lot of non-white men in this ad, and the bloody anal cancer photo was of a black man.
In that I am not too miffed about them making it like getting HIV is the end of the world. If you don’t have adequate medical coverage and you’re not getting tested, like some of these Down Low fellas are, it very well can be.
However I really do think that they should have included women. The number of Hispanic and black women being diagnosed with HIV is skyrocketing, in part because of the prevalence of men in heterosexual relationships sleeping with other men but mostly because NOBODY is using protection ANYWHERE.
Sometimes people just don’t want to listen to the voice of reason, unfortunately, so slapping them across the face with CANCER is the best way to get some folks to pay attention.
I dunno, one the one hand I agree with Kai that HIV is still not cured, and that people should really not want to get it in the first place. However, I feel like this went really psychotically over-the-top. You know, CANCER!!1! IN YER BUTT!!
There’s certainly something to be said for raising awareness about AIDS, but I don’t think this is particularly effective. And I agree, the fact that it solely targeted men was a bit bizarre.
I do think they could have focused less on the big scares and more on the quite likelies.
What, what in the butt.
Go outside and play until lunch.
Go.
Why shouldn’t you be afraid of contracting HIV? But then I’ve always been a proponent of educating people on all different kinds of birth control/barrier methods, then scaring the piss out of them with giant blown up pictures of crabs and syph.
What’s wrong with this ad? HIV might not be the immediate death sentence it once was, and it might not have as much of a stigma as it did before (although it’s still misunderstood amongst most people), but it’s still a frightening disease. This ad was clearly aiming towards gay men, who are still a high risk group considering the type of sex (that’s why the treat of anal sex was so important to mention). If you’ve ever witnessed someone die of AIDS or HIV, it’s a horrible thing to witness. And even if you take medication, you usually die from complications related to the illness. In my opinion, this ad wasn’t scary enough. Why do we think people need to be protected from ugly images? Scare the shit out of them. Maybe then they’ll think to use protection.
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