A controversial New Zealand AIDS Foundation poster and billboard campaign in the South Island has received honours in the recent New Zealand Best Design awards. The campaign imagery, featured on posters in Dunedin and Christchurch featured a black-and-white photo of a naked man with a highly-coloured "condom ring" and the phrase "safe is sexy, wear a condom". Two billboards featuring the image were also displayed in Christchurch. Newspaper letter pages were peppered with outraged citizens writing in, and the Advertising Standards Authority received a formal complaint – which was thrown out – but plenty of positive feedback was received at the Foundation, along with requests from both men and women for copies of the posters. The posters were produced in response to a rise in HIV in the South Island in 2002, which was disproportionate to the rest of the population. An overtly public campaign was devised in light of many of the new infections being among men who didn't identify as gay or bisexual, and were therefore harder to reach through the Foundation's regular delivery channels for the safe sex message.
Credit: GayNZ.com News Staff
First published: Thursday, 16th September 2004 - 12:00pm