Australia: Fed -- Scary Ads No Solution to AIDS Threat, Expert Warns

The Grim Reaper, dressed in a dark cape and knocking down ordinary citizens with a ball in a bowling alley, first appeared on Australian television as part of an HIV campaign in 1987. A small increase in HIV infection rates, for the first time since the mid-1990s, has led to discussions about an appropriate public campaign in response. That question was the subject of one presentation on April 28 at the World Conference on Health Promotion and Health Education in Melbourne.

But a fear-based HIV/AIDS campaign such as the Grim Reaper would not reach a target audience of gay men, said Dr. Sean Slavin of the Australian Research Center in Sex, Health and Society.

The consequences of the Grim Reaper campaign included stigma, discrimination, marginalization and depression among HIV-positive people. A new fear-based campaign would have similar results and lead to poorer health outcomes, said Slavin. A small increase in infections should not lead to abandoning health promotion strategies that have worked well for the past 20 years, Slavin said.

Culturally sensitive campaigns targeted at gay men are the best response, said Slavin. "They are increases that we need to be concerned about, we need to respond [to], but they're not such that we need to panic or we need to dramatically change what we know to have worked in the past, in terms of health promotion."

It is difficult to pinpoint a reason for the recent increases in HIV infection, said Slavin. "There's a lot of complex stuff going on," beyond the HIV numbers, Slavin said.

Up to 18,000 people are living with HIV/AIDS in Australia and New Zealand.

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