WAKE UP CALL
the form of outdoor posters, cinema ads, and newspaper ads, as well as TV spots running on MTV.
The ads themselves focus on the fears some people have about being close
to those with HIV and Aids. One features a woman at close proximity with
the headline, "You're closer than my family ever gets"; another
(our cover image) features a close-up of a man's face with the words projected
from the man's eyes: "Could you look me in the eye if you knew I
was HIV positive?" And Beckham's 'golden' goal for England even appears
in one of the cinema versions.
Other ads in the campaign expose the negative reaction people with HIV
get by showing written cases of abuse people have experienced. For example
one press
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ad reads: "Not until you are diagnosed HIV positive do you realise
how sick people can get."
In NAT's announcement of the campaign, they also reveal certain disturbing
facts from the national MORI survey. Like for example, 57 per cent of
respondents believed that people who become infected with HIV through
unprotected sex "only have themselves to blame". Only 14 per
cent said that they would donate time or money to HIV - in contrast to
many other medical conditions.
Unless these trends are tackled, warns NAT: "We run the risk
of returning to some of the worst aspects of the early
