Creating ads that conflate sex with death is positively medieval. But this TV spot, created by Leo Burnett in France is being talked up around the ad boards on the web as award material. Not in my book thank you very much. The copy simply says that every 10 seconds someone dies of AIDS. Okay, we all know that. We all know that how it is spread (I don't notice anyone shooting up in this commercial) and what to do to prevent it. This spot doesn't add to the discussion, but it does make pretty video. In fact it is rather, uh, salacious, and may in fact trigger more people to go have sex than to convince them that it's dangerous. And for that reason alone, you'll never see it on U.S. tv. No, sex doesn't equal death, as the old ACT UP activists knew, silence does. And this "public service" spot counts as silence to me, since it doesn't actually say anything. Or anything positive that would get anyone to change their behavior. It might get the director a job filming soft porn though.
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