Getting us to talk about HIV
I'm just catching up on this public service announcement by the New York City Department of Health warning of that there are still dangers to acquiring HIV. If you haven't seen it, have a look.
The ad is reported to have met with an outpouring of negative feedback, saying that it's using scare tactics to make gay men conform to safe sex guidelines. Dan Savage has written that he isn't sure where he comes down on it, stating that it's off putting, but more palatable messages don't get the job done (which I suspect is right, but in reality it's hard to determine how much of an effect they have, and whether the quality of a social marketing effort really matters).
If it's true that the approach of the PSA isn't the most useful, it's understandable. Public health folks and gay leaders bang their heads against a wall trying to reduce the number of uninfected gay men from seroconverting each year. Recent analysis projected that 41% of gay 18-year-old American males would have HIV by the time they were 40. For African Americans among them, that's 57%. Is it a surprise that 25 years into the epidemic, some are issuing frantic warnings?
The information shared through the ad is sound. Gay men need the unvarnished facts: HIV can lead to osteoporosis, dementia and anal cancer. But while the content of the ad is appropriate, the style is silly, approaching self-parody much like the health class films about VD I saw in 8th grade (in 1978, no less). Like those films, this ad will produce mockery a la Mystery Science Theater 3000 (we sure did than in the 8th grade) than fear.
Unfortunately there are loud voices in the gay community that claim that sharing any information that could be perceived as bad news about sexually transmitted infections is misguided and at its root homophobic. In gay men of my birth cohort this brings to mind Evillene from "The Wiz".
It's important to remember that this is only one ad. Most HIV prevention PSAs take different approaches. I might feel differently if this ad were the only kind of message out there, and it's not. I don't get bent out of shape about it.
Here's what this ad really seems to have done. We've been punked. It's so goofy that it got people to actually talk the ongoing HIV transmission, something that will harm our members but that isn't openly discussed. If tossing in an ad inspired by cheesy horror movies brings about that discussion, why not?
The ad is reported to have met with an outpouring of negative feedback, saying that it's using scare tactics to make gay men conform to safe sex guidelines. Dan Savage has written that he isn't sure where he comes down on it, stating that it's off putting, but more palatable messages don't get the job done (which I suspect is right, but in reality it's hard to determine how much of an effect they have, and whether the quality of a social marketing effort really matters).
If it's true that the approach of the PSA isn't the most useful, it's understandable. Public health folks and gay leaders bang their heads against a wall trying to reduce the number of uninfected gay men from seroconverting each year. Recent analysis projected that 41% of gay 18-year-old American males would have HIV by the time they were 40. For African Americans among them, that's 57%. Is it a surprise that 25 years into the epidemic, some are issuing frantic warnings?
The information shared through the ad is sound. Gay men need the unvarnished facts: HIV can lead to osteoporosis, dementia and anal cancer. But while the content of the ad is appropriate, the style is silly, approaching self-parody much like the health class films about VD I saw in 8th grade (in 1978, no less). Like those films, this ad will produce mockery a la Mystery Science Theater 3000 (we sure did than in the 8th grade) than fear.
Unfortunately there are loud voices in the gay community that claim that sharing any information that could be perceived as bad news about sexually transmitted infections is misguided and at its root homophobic. In gay men of my birth cohort this brings to mind Evillene from "The Wiz".
It's important to remember that this is only one ad. Most HIV prevention PSAs take different approaches. I might feel differently if this ad were the only kind of message out there, and it's not. I don't get bent out of shape about it.
Here's what this ad really seems to have done. We've been punked. It's so goofy that it got people to actually talk the ongoing HIV transmission, something that will harm our members but that isn't openly discussed. If tossing in an ad inspired by cheesy horror movies brings about that discussion, why not?