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Aids advert shocks Germany with Hitler sex pictures
An Aids awareness campaign has used shocking imagery of Hitler having sex to claim that the disease is a mass-murderer
A German Aids awareness organisation has come under fire for its latest advertising campaign, which features Adolf Hitler having sex with a young woman to get across the message that 'Aids ist ein Massenmörder' (Aids is a mass-murderer).
The shock tactics employed by Regenbogen eV are on show in a 45-second advertisement, in which a couple are having sex only for the man's face to be revealed at the end as that of Hitler. Poster versions of the campaign feature Saddam Hussein and Joseph Stalin, also with young female partners, while a radio spot uses a Joseph Goebbels speech.
But Aids organisations across the continent have criticised the project, believing that it can only serve to compound the stigmatism that Aids sufferers already feel. Others point out that there is no constructive message within the ads, such as promotion of the use of condoms.
"I think the advert is incredibly stigmatising to people living with HIV who already face much stigma and discrimination due to ignorance about the virus," a spokeswoman for the National Aids Trust, which co-ordinates World Aids Day in Britain, told the Daily Telegraph.
Regenbogen is defending the advertisement, saying that "the campaign is designed to shake people up, to bring the topic of Aids back to centre stage, and to reverse the trend of unprotected sexual intercourse. Because anyone can become infected."
Dirk Silz, the creative director of Das Comitee, the Hamburg advertising agency responsible for the campaign, told the Guardian: "We knew the face we gave to the illness could not be a pretty one. The ads show the ugliness of the illness, not of Aids victims." ·
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Manny Goldstein has just proven the point I made in a previous comment I submitted on this topic; please read it, Manny... too bad you can't see me gloat in that you proved me to be right in my assessment of this particular advert. Using Hitler is a double-edged sword, so let's use him any way we can, right?
Rubbish we did not know about this then.
Imagery by PC will not fool all
I thank you
Firozali A Mulla
If we have learned anything over the past 20 years, it's that scare tactics do not have an impact on behavioural change. So the positive effect of this ad will be nil. As for the negative effect, read more here: http://bit.ly/FBz35
The message about AIDS and protecting yourself against STDs is lost, the video will probably do the rounds among those with twisted minds and twisted senses of humour to become the next internet meme. Those who adore Hitler and Stalin (Neo-Nazis for the former and quite a lot of regular Russians for the latter) will likely be perturbed that their Great Leader has been linked with what they would see as a "gay plague" (Neo Nazis still believe this, as do fundamental Christians)
This advert reminds me of the 80s "Don't Die Of Ignorance" campaign that scared me at age 7... until a comedian mocked the adverts in that campaign that featured the caption "THIS IS NOT THE VOICE OF AN ACTRESS" his punchline "Right, that's it from now on, I'm only sleeping with actresses!"
This ad will appeal to the twisted minds of those who adore Hitler and Stalin, while the message about AIDS is completely lost. What a mistake it is and what an added assault on the victims of AIDS.
This is a good use of Hitler.
Oh, really? The end justifies the means does it? That's a very dangerous argument, Manny Goldstein. I think Hitler's Final Solution was premised on that one.
Is the use of this image shocking and dramatic?
Will it make people think about AIDS and the death of millions of people?
IF so, the use of the image is justified.
What a paradox, the face of Hitler being used to save lives!