AIDS: Don't Die of Ignorance was a public health campaign begun in 1986 by the UK Government in response to the rise of

HIV/AIDS in the United Kingdom HIV/AIDS was first diagnosed in 1981. As of year-end 2018, 160,493 people have been diagnosed with HIV in the United Kingdom and an estimated 7,500 people are living undiagnosed with HIV. New diagnoses are highest in gay/bisexual men, with an es ...

. The government believed that millions of people could become infected and a leaflet was sent to every home in the UK.

Norman Fowler Peter Norman Fowler, Baron Fowler, (born 2 February 1938) is a British politician who served as a member of both Margaret Thatcher and John Major's ministries during the 1980s and 1990s. He held the office of Lord Speaker from 1 September 2016 ...

, then

Secretary of State for Health and Social Services The Secretary of State for Health and Social Services was a position in the UK cabinet, created on 1 November 1968 with responsibility for the Department of Health and Social Security. It continued until 25 July 1988 when Department of Health and th ...

, felt that Prime Minister

Margaret Thatcher Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. S ...

"wasn't a natural supporter" of the campaign as she felt that informing people of HIV and unprotected sex would make people more likely to engage in such practices; a view that Fowler thought was "eccentric". The advertising campaign was made by the agency

TBWA TBWA Worldwide is an international advertising agency whose main headquarters are in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, United States. Since 1993, the agency has been a unit of Omnicom Group, the world's second largest advertising agency holdin ...

. The company had run previous campaigns for the government to raise awareness of blood donations and rubella epidemics. TBWA's designer Malcolm Gaskin was interviewed for ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' in 2017 about the campaign. Gaskin recalled that when TBWA was approached by the government "The big problem was that nobody knew anything about it. It was like an alien plague. Where did it come from? How big would it get? Panic and speculation was spreading". The disease itself would be targeted in the advert as opposed to individuals who had the disease. Fowler claimed that "90% of the public recognised the advert and a vast number changed their behaviour because of it" and as it was a "life and death situation...There was no time to think about whether it might offend one or two people" as hospital wards were "full of young men dying". Contemporary typography was used to inform the public that this was a current and new disease. The phrase was conceived of by copywriter David O’Connor-Thompson. Individual targeted messages from the campaign were created for dentists and tattooists who were at specific risk. The

Royal Mail , kw, Postya Riel, ga, An Post Ríoga , logo = Royal Mail.svg , logo_size = 250px , type = Public limited company , traded_as = , foundation = , founder = Henry VIII , location = London, England, UK , key_people = * Keith Williams ...

also marked mail with the slogan. The campaign had a lasting effect on the rate of sexual transmitted diseases in the UK.

Tombstone/Iceberg advert

The campaign is most remembered for a distinctive television advertising campaign, voiced by

John Hurt Sir John Vincent Hurt (22 January 1940 – 25 January 2017) was an English actor whose career spanned over five decades. Hurt was regarded as one of Britain's finest actors. Director David Lynch described him as "simply the greatest actor in t ...

and directed by

Nicolas Roeg Nicolas Jack Roeg (; 15 August 1928 – 23 November 2018) was an English film director and cinematographer, best known for directing '' Performance'' (1970), ''Walkabout'' (1971), ''Don't Look Now'' (1973), ''The Man Who Fell to Earth'' (1976 ...

. A volcano features in the most notable advertisement and an iceberg in the second. Malcolm Gaskin said that "Scaring people was deliberate" to guarantee that the viewers would read the leaflets posted to their house as the duration of the advert was only 40 seconds. Roeg was chosen for his signature “doom and gloom sci-fi aesthetic”. The volcano in the advert reinforces the apocalyptic tone. It was originally intended that a

Civil defense siren A civil defense siren, also known as an air-raid siren or tornado siren, is a siren used to provide an emergency population warning to the general population of approaching danger. It is sometimes sounded again to indicate the danger has pas ...

would sound at the start of the advert, but this was rejected by Thatcher as being overdramatic. Gaskin said of Thatcher's decision that “…she was probably right. If we’d kept it like that I think everyone would have headed for the beaches”.

References

{{Reflist

External links

National Archives - The AIDS monolith advertisement
1986 in the United Kingdom HIV/AIDS in the United Kingdom Infomercials British television commercials 1980s television commercials HIV/AIDS in television Public information films

Tombstone/Iceberg advert

See also

References

External links