Kenneth Cole Launches New Public Service Campaign on World AIDS Day

Fashion designer and American Foundation for AIDS Research Chair Kenneth Cole launched his newest AIDS awareness campaign on Dec. 1, World AIDS Day, the New York Times reports (Wilson, New York Times, 12/1). The campaign -- launched in conjunction with the KNOW HIV/AIDS campaign, which is produced by a partnership between Viacom and the Kaiser Family Foundation -- uses the slogan, "We All Have AIDS...If One Of Us Does" (Joint release, 12/1). New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, after attending the annual World AIDS Day breakfast at Gracie Mansion -- where he vowed to step up the city's fight against the epidemic during his last four years in office -- joined Cole and actors Natasha Richardson and Harry Belafonte to launch the campaign (New York Daily News, 12/2). Cole hopes to help minimize the stigma associated with the disease by dispelling the myth that AIDS is only an issue for HIV-positive people (New York Times, 12/1). Cole said, "If anyone is infected, we are all affected. If it exists anywhere, it exists everywhere" (ABCNews.com, 12/1). His campaign brings together prominent people from the entertainment and political worlds and includes a photograph featuring such personalities as former South African President Nelson Mandela; South African advocate Zackie Achmat; South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu; actresses Ashley Judd, Sharon Stone and Elizabeth Taylor; and actor Tom Hanks shown stepping in cement. The campaign will be featured in newspapers, magazines, on radio and via outdoor public service announcements (Joint release, 12/1). "We will reach over a billion people, we anticipate, in the next 30 days alone," Cole, who appeared on ABC's "Good Morning America," said (ABCNews.com, 12/1). The campaign also includes limited edition t-shirts that read, "I Have AIDS" and "We All Have AIDS." Cole also has created weallhaveaids.com, which provides information about HIV/AIDS and other organizations. Additional information on HIV testing sites and how to get involved in the fight against the pandemic is available at knowHIVAIDS.org (Joint release, 12/1).

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