American drug company Bristol-Myers is being urged to drop ads for its AIDS drug Reyataz, which features two bronzed men on a beach, because they minimise the seriousness of the disease. The novelty advertisement is featured in the latest issue of Poz, a monthly American magazine targeted at the HIV+ community. Operating in a similar manner to novelty talking greeting cards, when squeezed the magazine sets off a recorded message. A phone ring is heard twice, then a man's voice on an ansaphone exclaims, “Hey hey, we're at the beach! Catch you later!”. When opened, the advertisement itself featuring the bronzed men is revealed. Although the ads do not appear in New Zealand's gay media, the AIDS Foundation is still concerned about the potential impact of such messages, as imported gay media is readily available. "The NZAF is greatly concerned that these unrealistic ads desensitise HIV negative people to the seriousness of HIV, creating the impression that people don't have to worry so much about HIV anymore because, if a person does become infected, they can just "pop a few pills" and life will be fine," says spokesman Steve Attwood. "Although it has yet to become evident in New Zealand research, HIV educators worldwide have, for some time now, been talking about the influence that over-optimism in the ease and effectiveness of pill regimes has on unsafe sex behaviour." A spokesman for Bristol-Myers told the Wall Street Journal that similar concerns from the largest non-profit provider of HIV/AIDS medical care in the United States, the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, had been taken on board. that AHF's comments had been taken on board. "We take how people are portrayed in our advertising very seriously and strive to depict HIV-positive people in a responsible way. To our knowledge, we have not been contacted by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation about this advertisement but we take their opinion and feedback very seriously and will look forward to dialogue with them."