AIDS Project Los Angeles “We Need You” + “We Lose” [00:30]#
Two commercials form a new and beautifully executed campaign which is aimed at young gay men and tries to initiate a major paradigm shift in advertising about HIV and AIDS – from “safer sex” preaching, as the agency claims, to self-worth messages. Considering, however, the context in which the discussion of gay sexuality takes place, the pay off, “There’s life after sex” does carry some highly questionable connotations. (Doesn’t this imply the suggestion of sexual abstinence so dear to the religious right in America, particularly when it is prescribed for minorities?) To black and white images of young men excelling in various walks of life, a VO provided by Michael Stipe, lead singer of R.E.M., as well as some artistically typo graphed supers, speak of how “we need your talent, your passion, your voice,” and that “if we lose you, we lose your ideas, your spirit your friendship.”