Protect Your Love

Via Osocio, a very likeable ad for HIV prevention and awareness from the Toronto-based Alliance for South Asian AIDS Prevention. Osocio notes the ad is less about sex than and more about love, and in this way, I think, it manages to get its message across effectively, without being preachy or didactic.

(Incidentally, the short scene filmed in the Scarborough RT is very funny.)

Having the Talk about Birth Control

One of a series of YouTube videos from Bedsider, a program of  the U.S. National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy,  on having the birth control discussion with a physician.

[More videos can be found here.]

From Bedsiders webpage:

Babies are great…when you’re ready for them. We think in the meantime women should have the right to a healthy, happy sex life without having to worry about unplanned pregnancy. For that to happen, women need to take an active role in their own reproductive health. We want to help with that.

Bedsider.org (Bedsider) is an online birth control support network for women 18-29 operated by The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, a private non-profit organization. Bedsider is not funded by pharmaceutical companies. Or the government. Bedsider is totally independent and the info on it is honest and unbiased. Our goal is to help women find the method of birth control that’s right for them and learn how to use it consistently and effectively, and that’s it.

Right now, seven in 10 pregnancies among unmarried women 18-29 are described by women themselves as unplanned. That sounds like a lot to us. We hope that Bedsider will be a useful tool for women to learn about their birth control options, better manage their birth control, and in the process avoid getting pregnant until they’re ready.

That any of this would still be controversial in this the year of God’s grace 2012 boggles the mind, especially the part where it’s okay for women to be sexually active and enjoy it.

One small quibble to Bedsider: nurses get to talk about birth control too.

“How Did I Ever Live So Long Without a Monkey?”

Not what you think. Trust me. You may even have a tear or two.

More information can be found here.

How to Make a Myocardial Infarction Funny

A very droll short video featuring Elizabeth Banks having a heart attack. Part of the American Heart Association’s Go Red for Women campaign.

Not too edgy, but undoubtedly some will be officially ooffended/hurt/annoyed by the light treatment of a very serious subject.

*Shrug*

“I Take One Everywhere I Take My Penis”

United States, 1993.

25 years of AIDS prevention posters, which is to say, where health education and great graphic design meet. From an exhibit at the Art Directors Club, New York City. On the importance of the posters to combating the HIV/AIDS pandemic, the curator of the exhibit writes:

Ever since the AIDS epidemic struck, the responsibility of educating the world’s public has gained dramatically in significance. In many countries, the poster as a medium of information was unknown before the emergence and identification of the HIV virus. With a disease involving sexuality and sexual behavior, and therefore social and moral issues deeply rooted in culture and tradition, messages to raise awareness and encourage preventative behavior have varied significantly to best serve the intended audience. The poster has played a special role in promoting AIDS awareness and safe sex education across cultures—different aims, messages, visual metaphors, and strategies have strongly influenced the content and design of AIDS posters. These messages can successfully reach specific targeted groups because the poster as a medium is cheap and easy to produce locally.

The sad truth is the messages from these posters are still relevant, even from 25 years ago. A few more semi-random examples:

Switzerland, 2006. Translation: "No action without protection. 1. No intercourse without a condom. 2. No sperm or blood in the mouth. The Swiss Federal Office of Public Health and the Swiss Aids Federation: Safer sex is the best way to protect yourself from HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases."

United States, 1987. Inspired the deeply shameful Ryan White case.

Netherlands, 1995. Translation: "Wrap it up, or get out. I screw safely or I don't screw at all."

Finally, a semi-campy, half-ironic Swiss ad. I promise you’ll never look at those little cheeses with the milkmaid on them the same way ever again.

Switzerland,1992. Translation: "Without? Without Me"

[Via the cool guys at Osocio]

Five Feet of Fabulous!

Your colon, of course. What else? A funny, retro animation produced by the Canadian Cancer Society to start a colonversation on colon health. Also features a few fart gags and uses the word “poop”, in case you’re a delicate flower. (And who doesn’t like fart jokes? My mother-in-law does, anyway. Don’t ask.)

Shock and Awe Advertising, Part 3

So why do dogs and cats get more donations than our fellow humans anyway? This begs the larger question of why some causes more socially acceptable — by this I mean “safer” — than others. Approximately a billion corporations have attached themselves to breast cancer,  but I would like to see McDonald’s (for example) sponsor AIDS research.

An advertising campaign from ENABLE Scotland.

[Via,]

Sex, Vampires and Dentistry

Not a combination you would normally put together yourself, but I have to admit, it made me laugh.

Embrace Life. Wear Your Seatbelt.

I’ve linked to this ad before, and I’m doing it again because it was awarded Osocio’s award for the best advertising campaign of 2010. As an ED nurse, it’s especially poignant.

The Eternal Flame

Scenes from a dissipated childhood, courtesy of 15 and Falling, an anti-smoking campaign aimed at adolescents brought out by the Nova Scotia Department of Health and Wellness.

I have to admit, I laughed my ass off when I saw this. Who doesn’t like a good flatus joke, after all?

[Via.]