Public Service Announcements

Warning: adult material included.

In France on the TV right now, there is a great public service campaign about HIV and getting "the test." There are three different ads with three different couples, each with the same message.

"The first look. The first kiss. The first time. The second time. The third. The fourth, fifth, sixth... the 34th time. The test. The 35th. The 52nd. The 54th, 55th... Before you stop using condoms, get the HIV test."

Watch the three ads together (second warning: adult content):

French HIV ads

What I like about these ads is first of all, how simply gorgeous they look. The ads are sensual and beautifully shot and edited.

Second, I like the limited diversity they offer by including a gay couple as well as two straight couples. Of course, they don't include a lesbian couple or a racially mixed couple. The first is a problem, because the implicit suggestion is that lesbian couples don't have to worry, and of course that's not true. The second is also a problem, for obvious reasons.

Third, I find myself excited that the French treat HIV testing and the use of condoms as a matter of course, rather than a dirty secret to hide or talk about on the down low among adults only.

These ads run on TV all day--not just after the kids go to bed (and do kids have regular bedtimes like I used to? Not my sister's kids, ever!). They are far from pornographic, but they are adult: you understand that the couples are having sex, that they are not married, and that they are approaching sex responsibly. That responsibility is, well, romantic. Wow! Of course, the ads also focus on couples in monogamous committed relationships, in love as well as sex, and ignore the extracurricular sex events most adults engage in without relationship commitment nowadays.

So while certain aspects of the ads make me wary about the overall message, I applaud the French for being, well, frank about the fact that adults have sex, sex spreads HIV, and adults who have sex should use condoms and get tested to protect themselves and their partners. And that this practice is part of a responsible, loving relationship.

I think this is a great message to send. The world is far, far beyond the days when anyone could lie to herself that "only" gay men got HIV/AIDS, that the disease was some kind of judgment on the gay community, that the disease could only be prevented by celibacy, that adults (and teens) didn't have sex without love or commitment, that any one of us was safe if we were sexually active. Or, alternately, that the disease was located far, far away from "us" in gay bathhouses, Africa, or Asian brothels. That this thinking was fearful and ignorant as well as racist and prejudiced goes without saying.

I hope we've gotten beyond the notion that carrying condoms makes a man or woman "easy," that saying NO if your partner (male or female) refuses to use one is "being a tease," or that "just this once" without suggests you're not having sex with all his/her former partners... just this once, which is all it takes.  

Be prepared: the Boy Scout motto

Do unto others as you would have them do unto you: the Golden Rule

Play nice: Mother's credo

All good guidelines for this practice.

Pearl

Comments

[Art and Tea]

Those ads are wonderful!!! I so wish they would run ads like that  over here. Very matter of fact and real. They get the point across. So well done too! Thanks.