AIDS Ads, Part 2
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We continue our survey of safe-sex ads responding to the AIDS epidemic. Some ads showed nothing more than butts, like this 1990s ad for an AIDS helpline for Maori gay and bisexual men ...
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and this 1990s ad urging men to keep their dildos "dishwasher safe."
Some ads showed frontal views, though some were more direct than others. This 1990 ad by the Swiss organization AIDS Hilfe Schweitz only shows a dim silhouette of a penis.
And the frontal view is cartoonish in this 1992 ad by the AIDS Council of New South Wales, Australia.
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This 1995 ad for a symposium called Schwule Gesundheit '95 (Gay Health '95) in Hannover, Germany, looks like a chorus line for a musical, not an event about a disease.
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But in this 1990s ad by the CORE program promoting safer sex, the men have erections, so it's clear what it's about.
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And this 1989 ad by the Comité SIDA AIDE Montréal, promoted "the pleasure of latex" on a very visible erection.
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Finally, a few more ads actually showing sex. There's a hand on a cock in this 1991 ad promoting condoms by the Gay Men's Health Crisis and AIDS ACTION Committee of Massachusetts.
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And the guys in this 1990 ad from the San Francisco AIDS Foundation are, as the text says, "Ready for action ... with condom."
We end with this bizarre but memorable ad showing a man fucking a scorpion. The text explains itself.
We'll see more AIDS ads and posters next time.
8 comments:
I never saw anything like these ads where I live. In fact, I never saw a "safe sex"ad of any kind.
Many other countries were way more open about dealing with AIDS prevention. And so was San Francisco. But much of America got no ads or ads that were so generic and white washed they could easily be missed or forgotten. It’s unfortunate
I never saw anything like these either, but my reading material is not the kind that would have anything sexual. Before I was banned from YouTube, one of my favorite videos to watch was one where a famous South-American man who is a transvestite puts a condom on a fellow. This was really hot!!!
So THAT'S where the scorpion image came from!
We had talk about condoms on the news and in sex ed (1995-ish), but no ads.
At the same time, my sex life with men has always been restricted to non-penetrative sex out of personal preference, so my risk was always pretty low.
I remember my parents talking about safe sex and presenting with our first condom, and late that night dad showed me and my brothers how to put one in his semi, it was 2010s
LA, SF, and NYC were by far at the forefront of condom usage ads during the 80s. Even here in "Sin City" there were no ads like those. What a shame. But the country is again turning against the LGBTQ community.
the last image is really effective!
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