Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1995. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
The Associated Press - 1 Dec 1995
The spots reel along like MTV videos, interspersing personal advice from young people with scenes from dance clubs, Greenwich Village and a drug store. They are punctuated by headlines that scream, "Put It On," "Talk About It" and "It's O.K. to Wait to Have Sex."
"If you don't like these ads, you're old," Health and Human Services Secretary Donna E. Shalala said Thursday, unveiling the campaign on the eve of World AIDS Day. "These ads ... will save thousands of lives and heartbreak."
The bottom line message is: "Respect Yourself, Protect ourself."
One public service announcement features Dwayne, a gay man who cheerily insists, "If I'm going to have sex it's going to be protected. ... I'm HIV-negative, and I intend to stay that way."
Another shows Vivian unabashedly buying condoms. "If you have a condom and your partner doesn't, you just say, 'Here, put this on,"' she explains.
A third stresses that appearances are no tipoff to who is infected. "Nobody ever knows that I have AIDS unless I tell them," says Carol, a picture of health.
Some spots promote abstinence, even for those who are not virgins.
"Secondary virginity is what I practice," says Tami. "The next time I have sex will be when I get married."
The Family Research Council branded all the spots, except the abstinence ad, irresponsible.
The others "begin with the flawed premise that there is nothing wrong or harmful about teenagers having sex as long as they use a condom," said Gracie Hsu, a policy analyst for the conservative lobbying group. The government should not "give its imprimatur for teens to have sex."
But the Rev. Kenneth T. South, executive director of the AIDS National Interfaith Network, said that while the spots may seem to promote sex outside marriage, it would be "heinous for the federal government to withhold life saving information ... to reduce the spread of this epidemic."
Shalala said, "Young adults are the group that's at risk. You've got to go directly at them and be very clear."
AIDS is caused by a deadly virus for which there is no known cure. A half-million Americans have contracted the disease and 300,000 have died. It is the leading killer of those aged 25 to 44.
The government spent $400,000 to create the spots, developed by the ad agency Ogilvy & Mather.
An earlier round of AIDS prevention ads got $30 million worth of free air time since their January 1994 introduction, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated.
In one of those ads, a condom sprang to life and danced into bed with a surprised couple.
Copyright 1995/The Associated Press. Reproduced with permission. Reproduction of this article (other than one copy for personal reference) must be cleared through the Permissions Desk, The Associated Press, 50 Rockefeller Plaza, New York, NY 10020.
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Copyright © 1995 - Associated Press. Reproduction of this article (other than one copy for personal reference) must be cleared through the AP Permissions Desk.
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