Friday, August 17, 2007

Scare Tactics




I have to say I am very glad to see ads like the one above.

Takes me back. Remember this one:



Scared the shit out of me. Never wanted to have sex after seeing that one. And when it did finally come down to finally doing it, well, I had to put on a condom, cuz I was afraid of the consequences.

A few months back I bought an Advocate. Not one ad for condoms. Yet, I found two in a Maxim. Hm.

40,000 people are infected a year. That's a lot of people.

I wonder if young gays who see the ads put out by the drug companies promoting HIV/AIDS medications are getting the wrong idea. They may see these ads and think, oh it's manageable now. All I have to do is take a pill. Good for the drug companies, right. Put up some ads showing hot, young gay men sailing or mountain climbing. I mean, sure HIV/AIDS infected men are living longer and healthier lives, but what else is an ad like this showing the young people--and what's with all the side effects/warnings in very tiny print on the bottom of the ad (sometimes even continuing onto the next page) all about.

I don't know. I just want people to stop dying from this disease. It's preventable. I know it comes down to people not being educated or people being misinformed or people just not giving a shit. I want people to give a shit. Especially gay men. Look at our past. So many died. So many died because at that time nobody knew what the fuck it was. And even when we found out, nobody would do anything. President Reagan didn't even say the word AIDS publicly until 1987 and by that time 41,000 people were dead and 90 something thousand were infected.

I think I'm alive and well because of those ads in the 90's. It seems so stupid now thinking about Salt-N-Pepa rapping about wearing rubbers. But it worked. It may have been preachy. It may have been shameless at times. But it worked.

What will put the fear into youth today?

40,000 infected every year.

Makes me sad.

1 comment:

Marin said...

Oh my God, it's Courteney Cox! How dare they do that to Wonder Woman!

I agree with you: people need to take this shit seriously and protect themselves. Younger generations than ours aren't scared shitless the way we were, and maybe that fear has kept us alive.

However, it has also fucked us up pretty good, wouldn't you say? Being terrified of sex isn't healthy, either. Scare tactics and safe sex shouldn't have to go together. There must be a happier medium (I hope).

But I'm so glad we're alive, aren't you?

And I think what we need more than scary ads is to help eradicate self-hatred. That's what leads people to take stupid risks (often combined with stupid drugs) sexually. Complicated.

Harumph.