In December I commemorated World AIDS Day by posting a bunch of public service announcements warning men and women about the ongoing dangers of HIV and AIDS. This more recent campaign by the Finnish AIDS Council would have fit nicely into that gallery. I like how it incorporates Facebook check-ins as the viral metaphor for sexually transmitted diseases “by comparing social connections online to sexual connections in the real world.”
“[The posters] needed to be [heated] because the government was really dragging its feet, especially Mr. Reagan, and there was this major epidemic growing in the United States. I’m sure it probably had something to do with the fact that it started out as a gay disease, and that was not a topic that was generally spoken about in public,” Edward Atwater, the doctor responsible for the largest collection of AIDS posters, talked to The Atlantic.
Translation: ”He did not ask for a condom. He must be HIV negative. He did not ask for a condom. He must be HIV positive. How would you know?” Quebec, Canada.
Design: Garth Davis, Adam Fox, Todd Mitchell, Chris Tsernjavski, Photography: Kevan Way. Australia, 1995.
Victorian AIDS Council, Inc./Gay Men’s Health Centre, Inc. Australia, 1992.
Maryland. AIDS Administration, Photography: Jerry Seidl
Agency: MARKETEL, Creative Team: Gilles Dusablon, Linda Dawe, Stephane Gaulin. Canada, 2004.
Agency: MARKETEL, Photography: Martin Girard. Montreal, 2009.
Design: Carlos M. González Manjarrez, UNICEF. Mexico, 2007.
Agency: TBWA Paris. France, 2008.
Scotland, 1992
Anon, Publication of the Public Campaign Project Group AIDS/SOA (AIDS/Sexually Transmitted Illnesses) in association with the VWS (Ministry of Public Health, Welfare, and Sports), in addition this is supported by the Prevention Fund (Praeventiefonds). The Netherlands, 1995.
Design: Art Chantry. USA, 1993.
Translation: “The youth counter-attack!” Action SIDA Laval. Laval, Canada, 1990.
Design: Idania/Del Rio. Cuba, 2006.
Germany
Check out more AIDS awareness posters from around the globe:
One of the most endearing yet frank depictions of the trials and tribulations of gay sexuality that I have ever seen. With the subtle yet very visible references to condom use, I thought it was appropriate to revisit the cheeky, frisky animation on World AIDS Day.
Check out the equally cheeky female version here.
“We were happy to see an effect in the short term,” Bull says, “but pretty much as soon as you stop sending new messages or posting new material, the effect wanes. It teaches us that you need to keep your content fresh.”
Bull’s work confirms what social scientists have long supposed: Facebook campaigns rarely have a huge impact on teenagers, but they can have a small impact on a huge number of teenagers. Online messaging costs a fraction of the face-to-face kind; its reach is truly global; and “pushing” messages to a user’s News Feed is far more effective than asking them to visit a standalone Web site. But a 15-year-old’s virtual world is a chaotic, crowded place, and boring old STI facts area easily drowned out by high school gossip, Ryan Gosling memes, and all the latest Likes.
– From Pacific Standard’s article about a new study conducted by Shaena Bull, a professor at the University of Colorado’s School of Public Health who’s studied technology, teenagers, and sexual health for more than a decade.
The SF AIDS Foundation has launched a new viral campaign to get gay men into the habit of getting tested for HIV every six months. Many Shades of Gay is an interactive and educational website aiming to make frequent HIV testing the social norm regardless of color, age or flamboyant accessories.
On Many Shades of Gay, users can create an avatar to best represent their identity. Afterwards users are encouraged to keep their real personas as “healthy and fabulous” as the avatar by getting tested on the regular and offering a list of local resources. By highlighting the wide diversity of characters in the LGBT scene in San Francisco, “the most robust avatar generator ever built” makes our fight against AIDS the bond that ultimately links us all together.
A majority of newly diagnosed HIV cases in San Francisco are gay men under 30 who believed to be in an exclusive, committed, monogamous relationship. These guys were blindsided into contracting HIV from their primary partners, who had secret secondary partners of their own. Trust is a vital part of a relationship, so be proactive in communicating to your partner that, in some cases, we are trusting each other with our lives.
It can be scary sitting in a room waiting for your HIV test results, regardless of how safe we’ve been, but nothing is more frightening than ignorance — having to answer the HIV status question with a “not sure.” At the end of the day, HIV has become a manageable ailment. I can’t tell you how many poz guys I’ve scoped out that have healthy, bangin’ bodies. So find out your status, demand that your primary partner gets tested right away and make yourself into a funky caricature while you’re at it.
From L to R: Lower Haight St8 Gay, Noe Valley Ginger DILF Gay, Castro Debutante Gay (that thing near his mouth is supposed to be an iPhone running a rainbow-colored app), SoMa Latex Koala Bear Gay (with an exposed Prince Albert).
BOY TOYS TALK BACK: When was the last time you were tested?
