"If you think this looks dangerous. . . "

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"Please Hug Me"
artist: J. Keeler, 1987

Today is the 20th annual World AIDS Day. I can still remember when I first learned about AIDS, in the late eighties - it was an extremely scary and mysterious thing that the media seemed very uncomfortable covering. No one I knew was talking about it openly - family, friends, or teachers. That's why posters like this were so important.

AIDS awareness advertisements represent a history of creative and controversial images - largely because of their sometimes explicit* sexual content, but also because of the stigmas attached to STDs, casual sex, and homosexuality. Ads from commercial sources (usually condom companies), nonprofit groups, and governmental organizations reflect different priorities - but all reflect the difficulty of the topic.

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"If you think this looks dangerous. . . "
Phi Kappa Phi fraternity, 1990

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"Condoman"
Aborginal Health Workers of Australia, 1991

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"World AIDS Day" Venn diagram (detail)
Leela Ram for City & Country Chennai, India, 2008

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"Is it safe? The chalice and AIDS"
Terrence Higgins Trust, 1986

This poster from the UK addressed parishioners' concerns about sharing the drinking chalice during communion.

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"Saint Sebastian"
Shoshin Society
artist: Charles Michael Helmken, 1989

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"AIDS is still out there and it kills"
Youth AIDS, 2006

For more posters, visit the UCLA Darling Biomedical Library Collection of AIDS posters (most are foreign) or the National Library of Medicine.

*Great, but most likely NSFW:

Tulipan condom ad concept by Guillermo Vega
French insect arthropod AIDS campaign

If you're a blogger, don't forget to post about AIDS today, Dec. 1, and link to BloggersUnite.

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Um can I complain that the images of the "French insect AIDS campaign" don't contain insects? I guess "French arthropod AIDS campaign" doesn't have the same ring about it.

Pendantry aside (sorry), it's fascinating to see the different approaches to getting similar messages across. Last year the Finnish campaign had a photo of the president with several people who are HIV positive, I think making a similar point to the "Please Hug Me" poster.

Woops, caught me there Bob. I mistakenly remembered that there were several insects in addition to the tarantula and scorpion in that campaign. ;) My bad.

(To call attention to a mistake that wasn't mine, the scorpion's tail appears to be on backwards!)