AIDS: Don't Die Of Ignorance

This is the public information film that scared the fuck out of everyone in the 80s when Mrs Thatcher insisted on showing it during every commercial break which I thought was appropriate to post now considering rates of HIV are increasing.

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  Nonprofits & Activism

[jwood36]

ADIS: Don't die of dyslexia

[Muckydoggy1]

This advert is exactly the reason why AIDS is 50% lower in the UK than mainland Europe.

[commodorefan2]

They should have done this in the US at that time. Ronald Reagan (US President back then) didn't do didily squat about AIDS and wasn't even quoted as saying the word "AIDS" until two years before he left office. The Surgeon General and a government-sponsored PSA agency had to make ads to get the word out. So many lives could have been saved if Reagan had the balls to do something about it.

[Simon Edward Price]

I was ten when I first saw this. And it left a tremendous impact on me. Absolutely terrifying advert. They'd never get away with this now!

[Paul John Leadbeater]

Very chilling, but very true advert

[d1s2l3a4w5]

I remember this, they used to play it in the late 1980's, even through the childrens programmes, scared the bejesus out of me....

[Domzdream]

hey. It's John Hurt

[zakalon123]

Well that was the point Jenne. The govt were expecting thousands of deaths and it didn't happen. That is why they didn't have to have such eerie sinister ad campaigns. I am a child of the eighties and every other PIF that you saw always had to be Grim and Morbid.

That is why I am glad you see so few of them now. There is enough horror in the world without the govt physic assault during the ad breaks.

Especially when you are a kid. You don't need this sort of garbage giving you phobias, etc

[Jenne Bibby]

I agree the government were mainly to blame as they refused to intervene when the blood banks wouldn't test the blood and didn't provide the money the scientists were asking for BUT certain gay activists and politicians were begging for hard hitting educational campaigns because people were STILL going to bathhouses and having unprotective sex - they seriously didnt realise the enormity of the disease! I see your point though, as people got very scared but if it saved lives then . . .

[GodIsACosmicAsshole]

"And the Band Played On", I've read it 3x and it still facinates me.

GREAT READ! One of my favorite books.

I think its because of Randy Shilts style of reporting; the way all the principle characters were brought together through a shared experience, even though many had never met each other in person and may have lived a world apart.

[zakalon123]

I haven't read that book. But I did read " SLIM: AIDS IN AFRICA " (1992).

The reason Aids spread in America was that the Reagan/Bush administration didn't do any campaigns about it until 1992. By then it spread into the population and not just the high risk groups. But that is the govts fault.

But in regard to your last statement. I still say you can do an informative campaign without being OTT. As recent recent shown about this advert was people were scared yet still ignorant about aids.