Remember AIDS?

Ad-ing to the lax attitude toward HIV

Pharmaceutical drug companies in the last decade have developed quite a lucrative business by inflating demand for their products with over-the-top marketing strategies. Advertising on television, in print, on the radio and on the internet has reached a fevered pitch, bombarding people with messages that the cure for just about any ailment - from allergy symptoms to baldness to erectile dysfunction - is only a doctor's visit away. But recently, these ads have taken a turn for the worse. Specifically in the newly developing market of AIDS drugs, advertising has become a social problem. Recent nation-wide ad blitzes seem to say it's OK to have AIDS because prescription drugs are here to save you. Well, nothing could be further from the truth.

The ads have been targeted mostly at gay men, appearing on billboards in major metropolitan areas and in the pages of national periodicals. They usually show a man or sometimes a gay couple in their late twenties surrounded by friends with the message, "I'm positive" or "We're positive," respectively, in bold print. The ads seem to that the lifestyle of the HIV positive man has not changed dramatically, that he can still go on living his life. These ads contribute to lax attitudes about AIDS.

As awareness and fear of AIDS as a serious illness becomes less a social reality, the true reality has not improved because threats of acquiring the virus have not diminished in this country or abroad.

The social consequences of promoting an even more carefree attitude toward AIDS through careless advertising are disastrous. When the AIDS epidemic is reduced to mere trend, when the HIV positive man is lauded as a kind of billboard celebrity and when formerly fearful and cautious individuals are lulled into a false sense of security by these ads, the results are clearly awful. These ads are proving to have a negative impact on conceptions of HIV because they almost promote a kind of HIV-positive bandwagon exclusivity. Obviously, with this kind of message, a more lax attitude toward safe sex and a rise in HIV infection rates are the consequences. And AIDS drugs don't work for everyone.

Although news broke last week that an AIDS vaccine has proven effective in preliminary tests done on lower primates, such a miracle cure may be years away. Even if the vaccine does appear to be effective for humans, it faces years of FDA testing. At this point - being very optimistic - we can only begin to imagine a cure for AIDS on the horizon. But such hope seems ever more tenuous.

AIDS is no longer a hot-button issue. Support for fundraising and research has dwindled in recent years, much like support for rainforest preservation collapsed in the '80's. Too many now ignore the deadliness of AIDS. As this virus slips from the spotlight, apathy and carelessness has taken the place of safety.

The only certain way to avoid the onset of AIDS is to protect oneself from acquiring the virus in the first place. Safe sex, abstinence and limited risk behavior are the only ways to truly avoid this disastrous modern epidemic. And these ads continue to rip apart that foundation, that AIDS awareness safety net.

Magazines with any social conscience should pull these dangerous ads from their publications. Celebrating an as-yet-incurable disease to sell drugs is reprehensible.