Archive for the tag "advertising"

Is AIDS a mass murderer? Not in Germany (09/09/09)

I’ve been roused from my long summer torpor by a row over a German ad that tries to make Hitler the face of AIDS. Predictably enough, activist groups immediately yelled “stigma”! What we should be yelling is “dinosaurs!”. In Western Europe, AIDS is no longer the “mass murderer” the ad claims. In fact, it is […]

Should we dump on negative advertising? (26/08/08)

As competition to treat people for HIV has hotted up, pharmaceutical companies have started dumping on one another. Using innuendo and not-quite-stated factoids, they are beginning to imply that the rival camp has something to hide (something they’ve no doubt learned from political campaigns). Those other drugs are toxic, discolouring, inconvenient. Activist groups and HIV […]

Sex sells. But can it build? (27/02/08)

Anyone who has ever been on the metro in Paris knows that the French use sex to sell everything from dishwashers to floor cleaner. Now the league of students is using it in this (im)passioned plea to the government: Build more housing for students! Thanks to Unspun for throwing back the covers on this one.