Out with the grim, in with the glam
If you were one of the millions of Australians either horrified or morally offended by the Grim Reaper HIV/AIDS awareness campaign of the early 80's, prepare to shift gear with ACON's play on the legendary ad
By Andrew Georgiou
If you were one of the millions of Australians either horrified or
morally offended by the Grim Reaper HIV/AIDS awareness campaign of the
early 80's, prepare to shift gear with ACON's play on the legendary ad.
The new HIV prevention campaign replaces the Grim Reaper with
the Glam Reaper played by our very own Mitzi Macintosh who's lost the
bowling ball for a mirror ball.
The campaigns tag line "HIV
remains with us" uses familiar faces from within the community
including Bingay's Naomi Palmer and singing cub sensation J Bear getting down to the disco sounds of Kylie at a disco bowling alley.
The
message is as poignant as ever without using the witch-hunting, finger
pointing and shock tactics of its predecessor, which did little more
than alienate the gay community from the mainstream.
ACON CEO
Stevie Clayton says "while the original campaign had a profound impact
on creating awareness of HIV, it also came out at a time when we knew
little about HIV and when there was great fear about HIV, leading to
the demonisation of gay men and stigmatisation of people with HIV."
Watch the Official Youtube version of the Glam Reaper commercial below!
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