Campaigns

The U.S. is not the only nation struggling with how to educate the public about using condoms as a protection against AIDS. Two weeks ago Britain launched a $30 million government-funded campaign featuring TV ads with the word AIDS chiseled on a gravestone. "Don't die of ignorance," blares the accompanying voice. (Condoms, however, are not mentioned.) Detailed information is in leaflets being sent to the nation's 23 million homes. Denmark and Norway are matter-of-factly running explicit pro-prophylactic TV spots alongside ads for traffic safety and medical care. One cartoon commercial depicts a small i in the word AIDS that reaches full capital size when covered with a condom. West Germany is also in the midst of an all-out campaign to promote condoms. By this week 66 million newspapers and magazines will have carried a drawing of a man and woman with the tag line "Trust is good; condoms are better." The Bonn government is planning explicit TV ads as well. A prudish concern about offending conservative sensibilities, says Dr. Hartmut Meyer of the federal Health Ministry, is now "too dangerous."

Even Italy is providing the public with graphic information. A five-hour special broadcast last week by RAI, the state-run network, included sketches of couples engaged in various intimate acts. Health officials discussed the AIDS-related risks associated with the pictured practices, and fielded calls from anxious viewers. France has yet to start a coordinated effort. A 20-year- old law, prompted by France's stagnant birth rate and amended only in November, had made it illegal to advertise condoms on television or in magazines.

Japan's mass-education program is limited to the distribution of pamphlets, mainly at government health centers. Some TV commercials may begin appearing irregularly by March, but the Japanese are already committed to condoms: 70% of couples rely on prophylactics for birth control. In Africa, where AIDS campaigns are most needed, they are sadly least in evidence. Because of tribal taboos, societal objections to sexually explicit language and the lack of public communications networks, even medical workers are frequently ignorant about how the disease can spread. The World Health Organization predicts that by the turn of the century, AIDS in Africa will have claimed 5 million lives.