You Know You Love Me, xoxo Gossip Fug

So this advertising campaign has now become infamous within TeamPC. In a time when Aids was not publicly acknowledged, this Australian campaign in 1987 was broadcast on every TV screen during prime-time hours. Suddenly people were faced with the stark realisation that Aids was something that needed attention and awareness. The use of the Grim Reaper, the deep booming voice and the dark and horror-like way of filming all contributed to sending shockwaves across society. The fact that there is no known cure for the disease, along with their slogan of “prevention is the only cure we’ve got”, really scared and shocked the viewers who had never seen an advert like this before. This is where its real shock value was; people suddenly being forced to acknowledge this from inside their own homes.

The ad features a personification of death, more specifically The Grim Reaper, bowling and knocking down men, women and children and killing them. People behind the campaign have said it was needed to “shake a nation into taking charge of its own sexual health”. However with the first line of the ad being “At first, only gays and IV drug users were being killed by Aids” it lead to many areas of offense and misunderstanding. Many people saw the Grim Reaper character in the ad as not death itself but those who already had Aids. Therefore huge social barriers were drawn between those who had the disease and those who were afraid that you could catch it from toilet seats, or from gay plumbers who may have infected the water supply. This in turn has lead the “pioneer” of the campaign to regret what became the demonisation of gay men….

”   Australia’s 1980s “Grim Reaper” advertising campaign was pivotal in changing heterosexual behavior but had the regrettable consequence of demonizing gay men, according to the country’s leading AIDS pioneer.

Dr. Ron Penny, who diagnosed Australia’s first case of AIDS 20 years ago, was on the government body that approved the campaign’s release in 1987. The Simon Reynolds-designed campaign featured a cowled, bowling ball-wielding Reaper knocking down men, women and children in a bowling alley. The campaign was one of the most effective ever launched in Australia, said Penny, who recently retired as head of Immunology at Sydney’s St. Vincent’s Hospital. But it struck an unfortunate blow to the gay community, which had already taken the lead in AIDS awareness and safe sex practices. “The downside was that the Grim Reaper became identified with gay men rather than as the Reaper. That was what we had unintentionally produced — [the belief] by some that the Reaper was people with HIV infection, rather than the Reaper harvesting the dead,” said Penny.

However, in terms of being “a wake-up call to Australia,” the ad’s impact was astounding, Penny said. “I think there’s never been anything on television or any media that has ever matched it in terms of impact, but no advertising can be without some downside, and that was never intended. But it at least made people aware and probably did change sexual practices of heterosexuals.”

“Prevention is still important, and I think that the new generation of gay men see AIDS as an uncommon disease and therefore taking risk has reappeared,” said Penny. “We’ve got to talk about what is a floor level that you accept — like motor vehicle accidents. You can’t guarantee that people won’t die on the roads, but you’ve got to do better than you’re doing.”          ”

So now in 2009 we can not only see that this ad would have been shocking within its context of the 1980s, but also how public reaction to it is shocking for how open minded and free thinking the world has become in a relatively short period of time.

xoxo Gossip Fug

November 5, 2009. HEALTH.