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Surviving & Thriving: AIDS, Politics, and Culture

Fear Mongering

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Bang, you’re dead!, 1980s

This campaign from the New York Department of Health stressed a direct connection between sex, AIDS, and death, providing little advice on how to have safer sex, beyond noting condoms as a somewhat successful backup choice to abstinence. With its message of instant death, the language used here also undermined the ongoing efforts of medical researchers to extend the life expectancy of those with HIV/AIDS.

  • Publisher(s):
    New York City Department of Health
  • Type:
    Poster
Black and white photograph of a white man and woman naked in bed kissing, the man is on top and obscures most of the woman.
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    BANG. you’re DEAD!

    That’s how serious AIDS is.

    Anyone can get the AIDS virus by having sex with an infected person. And you just can’t be sure who’s infected. The carrier often doesn’t know, and can have the virus years before the symptoms start showing up.

    And once you get AIDS, you’ll likely die. No ifs, ands or cures.

    Not having sex is one sure way to avoid AIDS. But if you have sex, use a condom. Because the one thing you Don’t want to hear is “You’ve got AIDS.”

    If you think you can’t get it, you’re dead wrong.

    NEW YORK CITY DEPARTMENT OF HEAlTH. FOR MORE INFORMATION CALL: 1 (718) 485-8111

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