Advertisement
If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on hello@boards.ie for help. Thanks :)
Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact hello@boards.ie
Hi there,
There is an issue with role permissions that is being worked on at the moment.
If you are having trouble with access or permissions on regional forums please post here to get access: https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058365403/you-do-not-have-permission-for-that#latest

Did anyone see this yet? Hitler AIDS Advertisement

  • 07-09-2009 7:34pm
    #1
    Posts: 0


    The provocative commercial, which ends with the tag-line "AIDS is a mass murder", aims to scare young people into using condoms by associating the deadly disease with the German dictator.

    In the highly-sexualised clip which can only be shown after the watershed, a couple undress and begin to make love in a dimly-lit bedroom.
    But what appears to be a typical, if steamy, advert for perfume or underwear takes a macabre twist when the camera pans to man's face at the moment of climax - revealing him to be Adolf Hitler.
    The commercial has been released to coincide with 2009 World Aids Day, but established HIV/Aids charities have distanced themselves from its message, saying that it could make life more difficult for sufferers.
    "Of course there are many HIV organisations that run their own campaigns, however 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, said.
    "On top of this it fails to provide any kind of actual prevention message (e.g. use a condom) and may deter people to come forward for testing.
    "The advert is also inaccurate because in the UK thanks to treatment HIV is a manageable condition that does not necessary lead to AIDS."
    The commercial was produced by the young Hamburg-based advertising agency das comitee on behalf of a small German Aids awareness group called Regenbogen e.V.
    The group could not be contacted for comment this morning but defended its controversial approach on the "AIDS is a mass murder" website.
    "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," the website states.
    Hans Weishäupl, creative director of das comitee, told the Telegraph that it proposed the Hitler film after being briefed by Regenbogen e.V to come up with hard-hitting ideas.
    "A lot of people are not aware that Aids is still murdering many people every day. They wanted a campaign which told young people that it is still a threat," he said. "In Germany, Hitler is the ugliest face you can use to show evil".
    Mr Weishäupl said that the some members of the Regenbogen e.V organisation who have Aids raised concerns that the campaign could present a negative view of sufferers, but they agreed that the advert's shock value could help prevent the spread of the infection.
    The videos will be broadcast on German television stations from next week, but only after 9pm because of their sexual content.
    "We worked on the campaign for free because we wanted to help out," Mr Weishäupl said. "We have also produced versions in English and Spanish so they can be broadcast abroad, if there is interest."
    The campaign also features poster adverts of Saddam Hussein and Joseph Stalin, and a radio spot that re-works a famous speech by Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi propagandist.


Comments

This discussion has been closed.
Advertisement