AIDS: Don't Die of Ignorance | |
---|---|
Description | |
Organizer | United Kingdom Department of Health and Social Security |
Participants |
|
Additionally | |
Type | Public health information campaign |
Start date | 1986 |
AIDS: Don't Die of Ignorance was a public health information campaign begun in 1986 by the UK Government in response to the rise of HIV/AIDS in the United Kingdom. [2] [3] [4] The government believed that millions of people could become infected, so newspaper adverts were published, a leaflet was sent to every home in the UK, [2] [5] [6] [7] and, most memorably, a television advertising campaign was aired. [8]
By February 1986, Norman Fowler, then Secretary of State for Health and Social Services, was becoming both concerned and frustrated because, while AIDS cases were "beginning to increase alarmingly", the Department for Health and Social Services (DHSS) was finding it difficult both to explain the danger to the public and "to persuade other ministers that urgent measures were now needed". Fowler was, however, certain that "we needed a direct advertising campaign" and that "the prospect for those who ignored these warnings was death ... justified ... the government going into detail on sexual practices and drug taking" [3] : ch. 1 In February 1986 he circulated a draft advert to all ministers on the General Home Affairs Committee of the Cabinet and to Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, alongside information that "of the 275 cases of AIDS reported by the end of 1985, 144 had died" and that, because most people with HIV would not be aware of their status, they would go on to infect others. He explained that public information warnings "would have to strike a balance between being too explicit and too anodyne". [3] : ch. 1
Downing Street called Fowler shortly before the Cabinet committee meeting as the paper had caused Thatcher to ask: "Do we have to have the section on risky sex? ... I should have thought that it could do immense harm if teenagers read it". In his memoir, Fowler commented that "her fear was that young people would in some way be contaminated by this knowledge" [3] : ch. 1 and that she felt that informing people of HIV and unprotected sex would make people more likely to engage in such practices, a view that Fowler thought was "eccentric". [2] [5] The Cabinet committee approved Fowler's proposed wording and asked him to consider extending the campaign to other media; Willie Whitelaw (chair of the Cabinet committee and de facto Deputy Prime Minister) stated that "the committee agreed ... that the explicit references to sexual practices were a regrettable necessity". [3] : ch. 1
The Prime Minister was, however, unconvinced, with Nigel Wicks, her principal private secretary writing to Fowler recommending he "follow the 'VD' precedent of putting notices in doctors' surgeries, public lavatories etc". Wicks continued that "to place advertisements in newspapers which every young person could read and learn of practices they never knew about would, in her view, do harm" and suggested he "might wish to consider ... an amended advertisement which omits the parts which, in the Prime Minister's view, would be likely to offend". [3] : ch. 1
Fowler wrote in his memoir that "blunt sexual health advice" had already been proven effective, discussing campaigns against sexually transmitted infections in World War 1 and World War 2, with chief medical officer Wilson Jameson broadcasting on BBC radio in October 1942. [9] The adverts were run in newspapers in March and April 1986 "without much comment" but Fowler was concerned that the lack of urgency to publish and "closely written text, rather like the instructions on a medicine bottle" represented "an inauspicious start to what was to become the biggest public education campaign ever staged in Britain". [3] : ch. 1 In June 1986, Fowler drafted a second advert campaign, more direct and with specific messaging around multiple partners ("especially male partners") and around harm reduction for intravenous drug users. This campaign was printed in newspapers the following month; Fowler wrote "it had modest success but did not match the increasing public concern ... on the spread of Aids". [3] : ch. 1
The advertising campaign was made by the agency TBWA. [5] The company had run previous campaigns for the government to raise awareness of blood donations and rubella epidemics. TBWA's designer Malcolm Gaskin was interviewed for The Guardian in 2017 about the campaign. Gaskin recalled that when TBWA was approached by the government "The big problem was that nobody knew anything about it. It was like an alien plague. Where did it come from? How big would it get? Panic and speculation was spreading". The disease itself would be targeted in the advert as opposed to individuals who had the disease. [2]
Fowler claimed that "90% of the public recognised the advert and a vast number changed their behaviour because of it" and as it was a "life and death situation...There was no time to think about whether it might offend one or two people" as hospital wards were "full of young men dying". [2] Contemporary typography was used to inform the public that this was a current and new disease. The phrase was conceived by copywriter David O’Connor-Thompson. Individual targeted messages from the campaign were created for dentists and tattooists who were at specific risk. [2] The Royal Mail also marked mail with the slogan. [2] The campaign had a lasting effect on the rate of sexually transmitted diseases in the UK. [10] By 1987 a Gallup Poll showed that 98% of the public was aware of how HIV was transmitted, and the vast majority supported Fowler's campaign. [11] By 1990 infection rates in the UK were below those of peer nations, including France and the USA. [12]
External videos | |
---|---|
AIDS: Monolith (1987), from the British Film Institute, via YouTube |
The campaign is most remembered for a distinctive television advertising campaign, voiced by John Hurt and directed by Nicolas Roeg. [8] A volcano features in the most notable advertisement and an iceberg in the second. [5] Malcolm Gaskin said that "scaring people was deliberate", to guarantee that the viewers would read the leaflets posted to their house as the duration of the advert was only 40 seconds. Roeg was chosen for his signature “doom and gloom sci-fi aesthetic”. The volcano in the advert reinforces the apocalyptic tone. It was originally intended that a civil defence siren would sound at the start of the advert, but this was rejected by Thatcher as being overdramatic. Gaskin said of Thatcher's decision that “...she was probably right. If we’d kept it like that I think everyone would have headed for the beaches”. [2]
Nicolas Jack Roeg was an English film director and cinematographer, best known for directing Performance (1970), Walkabout (1971), Don't Look Now (1973), The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976), Bad Timing (1980) and The Witches (1990).
The AIDS epidemic, caused by HIV, found its way to the United States between the 1970s and 1980s, but was first noticed after doctors discovered clusters of Kaposi's sarcoma and pneumocystis pneumonia in homosexual men in Los Angeles, New York City, and San Francisco in 1981. Treatment of HIV/AIDS is primarily via the use of multiple antiretroviral drugs, and education programs to help people avoid infection.
Sex appeal in advertising is a common tactic employed to promote products and services. Research indicates that sexually appealing content, including imagery, is often used to shape or alter the consumer's perception of a brand, even if it is not directly related to the product or service being advertised. This approach, known as "sex sells," has become more prevalent among companies, leading to controversies surrounding the use of sexual campaigns in advertising.
Peter Norman Fowler, Baron Fowler, is a British politician who served as a member of both Margaret Thatcher and John Major's ministries during the 1980s and 1990s. He held the office of Lord Speaker from 1 September 2016 to 30 April 2021.
Mantombazana "Manto" Edmie Tshabalala-Msimang OMSS was a South African politician. She was Deputy Minister of Justice from 1996 to 1999 and served as Minister of Health from 1999 to 2008 under President Thabo Mbeki. She also served as Minister in the Presidency under President Kgalema Motlanthe from September 2008 to May 2009.
Matthias Rath is a doctor, businessman, and vitamin salesman. He earned his medical degree in Germany. Rath claims that a program of nutritional supplements, including formulations that he sells, can treat or cure diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer, and HIV/AIDS. These claims are not supported by any reliable medical research. Rath runs the Dr. Rath Health Foundation, has been closely associated with Health Now, Inc., and founded the Dr. Rath Research Institute.
Shock advertising or shockvertising is a type of advertising that "deliberately, rather than inadvertently, startles and offends its audience by violating norms for social values and personal ideals". It is the employment in advertising or public relations of "graphic imagery and blunt slogans to highlight" a public policy issue, goods, or services. Shock advertising is designed principally to break through the advertising “clutter” to capture attention and create buzz, and also to attract an audience to a certain brand or bring awareness to a certain public service issue, health issue, or cause.
Vernon Edward Coleman is an English conspiracy theorist and writer, who writes on topics related to human health, politics and animal welfare. He was formerly a general practitioner (GP) and newspaper columnist. Coleman's medical claims have been widely discredited and described as pseudoscientific conspiracy theories.
HIV/AIDS is one of the most serious health concerns in South Africa. South Africa has the highest number of people afflicted with HIV of any country, and the fourth-highest adult HIV prevalence rate, according to the 2019 United Nations statistics. About 8 million South Africans out of the 60 million population live with HIV.
AIDS was first diagnosed in 1981. As of year-end 2018, 160,493 people have been diagnosed with HIV in the United Kingdom and an estimated 7,500 people are living undiagnosed with HIV. New diagnoses are highest in gay/bisexual men, with an estimated 51% of new diagnosis reporting male same-sex sexual activity as the probable route of infection. Between 2009 and 2018 there was a 32% reduction in new HIV diagnosis, attributed by Public Health England (PHE) to better surveillance and education. PHE has described an "outbreak" in Glasgow amongst people who inject drugs, and has campaigns targeting men who have sex with men in London and other major cities. London was the first city in the world to reach the World Health Organization target for HIV, set at 90% of those with HIV diagnosed, 90% of those diagnosed on HAART and 90% of those on HAART undetectable. The UK as a whole later achieved the same target. Under the Equality Act 2010, it is illegal to discriminate against someone based on their HIV status in the UK.
Keep a Child Alive (KCA) is a nonprofit organization that provides healthcare, housing, and other support services to HIV/AIDS-affected communities in Africa and India. Co-founded by Leigh Blake and Alicia Keys, the organization aims to "realize the end of AIDS for children and families, by combating the physical, social and economic impacts of HIV." Keep a Child Alive organizes the annual fundraiser gala The Black Ball, established in 2004, where celebrities and philanthropists gather to support and raise awareness for the cause. Since the first Black Ball, the organization has raised over $28.7 million for HIV/AIDS treatment.
The history of HIV/AIDS in Australia is distinctive, as Australian government bodies recognised and responded to the AIDS pandemic relatively swiftly, with the implementation of effective disease prevention and public health programs, such as needle and syringe programs (NSPs). As a result, despite significant numbers of at-risk group members contracting the virus in the early period following its discovery, Australia achieved and has maintained a low rate of HIV infection in comparison to the rest of the world.
Since the arrival of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Italy in the 1980s, 120,000 cases of people testing positive for HIV have been registered with the Ministry of Health. Every year, 4,000 new infections are registered. Since the 1980s, 58,400 diagnoses of AIDS have been recorded, of which 35,300 have resulted in mortality. From the height of the epidemic in 1995 to today, the number of registered cases of AIDS has fallen from 5,600 to 1,200. The decline in incidence of AIDS is directly attributable to the efficacy of combined antiretroviral drug therapy, which has resulted in an increase in the number of people living with the diagnosis. The effectiveness of the drug therapy means that the 23,000 Italians diagnosed with HIV have better chances of not progressing to AIDS.
With less than 0.1 percent of the population estimated to be HIV-positive, Bangladesh is a low HIV-prevalence country.
UNAIDS has said that HIV/AIDS in Indonesia is one of Asia's fastest growing epidemics. In 2010, it is expected that 5 million Indonesians will have HIV/AIDS. In 2007, Indonesia was ranked 99th in the world by prevalence rate, but because of low understanding of the symptoms of the disease and high social stigma attached to it, only 5-10% of HIV/AIDS sufferers actually get diagnosed and treated. According to the a census conducted in 2019, it is counted that 640,443 people in the country are living with HIV. The adult prevalence for HIV/ AIDS in the country is 0.4%. Indonesia is the country in Southeast Asia to have the most number of recorded people living with HIV while Thailand has the highest adult prevalence.
Since HIV/AIDS was first reported in Thailand in 1984, 1,115,415 adults had been infected as of 2008, with 585,830 having died since 1984. 532,522 Thais were living with HIV/AIDS in 2008. In 2009 the adult prevalence of HIV was 1.3%. As of 2016, Thailand had the highest prevalence of HIV in Southeast Asia at 1.1 percent, the 40th highest prevalence of 109 nations.
The Grim Reaper is a 1987 Australian television commercial aimed at raising public awareness on the dangers of AIDS. Created as part of a $3 million education campaign by the National Advisory Committee on AIDS (NACAIDS), the advertisement depicted the Grim Reaper ten-pin bowling in a bowling alley and knocking over men, women, and child "pins" which represented AIDS victims. The commercial was created by Siimon Reynolds and narrated by voice-over artist John Stanton, and was first screened on 5 April 1987. The ad was also supplemented by printed material which explained the disease and detailed preventative measures.
Pakishe Aaron Motsoaledi is a South African politician is the Minister of Health in the cabinet of South Africa, having been appointed in this position with effect 3 July 2024. He was previously the Minister of Home Affairs from 2019 to 2024 as well as the Minister of Health from 2009 to 2019. A member of the National Assembly since 2009, he is also a member of the National Executive Committee of the African National Congress (ANC).
The San Francisco AIDS Foundation (SFAF) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing services for people with HIV/AIDS, with a mission to end the AIDS epidemic in the United States. They were founded in 1982, at the beginning of the AIDS epidemic. SFAF is one of the largest and oldest community-based AIDS service organizations in the United States. SFAF has an 87.67% overall rating, and a 97% accountability & transparency rating, at Charity Navigator.
Socio-political activism to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS as well as to advance the effective treatment and care of people with AIDS (PWAs) has taken place in multiple locations since the 1980s. The evolution of the disease's progress into what's known as the HIV/AIDS pandemic has resulted in various social movements fighting to change both government policies and the broader popular culture inside of different areas. These groups have interacted in a complex fashion with others engaged in related forms of social justice campaigning, with this continuing on to this day.