Ad Aware

The current highly aggressive campaign by the AIDS Foundation of Chicago has come in for some heavy criticism. I imagine the creators are attempting to highlight the jarring disconnect between glossy trendy images (each image targets a behavior; for example, the sample one to your left addresses barebacking, the increasingly dangerous practice of unsafe sex) and the tragedy of emerging virulent medication resistant strains of HIV. AIDS awareness has been eclipsed by more trendy disorders as it is no longer viewed as a cataclysmic plague: you go to a benefit dinner, drop a few hundred, shake hands with a minor celebrity ("I was on Celebrity Survivor") and politely clap when the drag queen gets his kit off. For those who think the series of print ads glamorizes AIDS, I think they are wrong - stylish people should know that trends don't last forever. AIDS, herpes and breast cancer, like diamonds, are forever.