My experience regarding HIV and AIDS is limited to Venezuela and Canada. However, this is enough to put into perspective how different the realities are, dependending of where you are.

Despite any difference, there’s a common key point: marketing agencies cannot be left to themselves. When “creative” people design campaigns, they tend to repeat all the misconceptions society is carrying from the 80′s. Just as an example, in Venezuela the marketing agency hired by the only NGO with money to pay for this kind of service NEVER has tested any campaign with people living with HIV (or any group); just 2 people, the head of this NGO and a “creative” women. The result: campaigns promoting the they/us segregation through shocking campaigns suggesting we need to fear about people living with HIV; they’re like Hitler, isn’t they? In this vein you’re totally right: some people doing prevention are dinosaurs.

BTW, this mass murder campaign can be a delight for those who are looking for “evidence” to criminalize people living with HIV.

Thanks for this and the Guardian piece.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/sep/09/aids-hiv-hitler-advert?commentid=ec12bca3-35cb-4bfa-b2c1-947b08e44775

That comment really hits the nail on the head with regard to this particular advertisement. There are countless HIV prevention ads that portray people with HIV as ticking time bombs, poisonous insects, dangerous animals, and now genocidal killers. All this, and you gently mock the very notion of ‘stigma’. Some of us with HIV find it shocking that the rest of you still think of us as homicidal maniacs just because we would have the temerity to continue having sex lives. If our reaction is ‘predictable,’ may I suggest that this is because stigma continues to be a major obstacle to shaping a rational and humane response to the epidemic?