Humor: Love life, stop AIDS (Switzerland)
Fear and Humor are common to be used in graphic design. The purpose of the public campaign is to make impact, and to be remembered easily by viewers. In this case, I would like to compare the efficiency of fear and humor, and how they are used in the AIDS campaign.
In both aspects, the method is to use metaphor of the images and embrace the complexity rather than presenting straight answers.
AIDS is a mass murder. 2009 (Germany)
The creators of the ad campaign chose these men according to their website because “it features the greatest mass murderers in recent history having sex.”
“The campaign is designed to shake people up, to bring the topic of AIDS back to centre stage, and to reverse the trend of unprotected sexual intercourse.”
According to Witte and Allen in 2000, Fear appeals are most effective when they contain both a high-treat AND a high-efficiency component. The aim of the campaign to scare people extremely. It is designed to terrify people. What I've learned at school is that if you want to emphasize something, you should use it to the limit. I think this is a good example. Although I like the metaphor of the images, I also worry that by using historical figures to interpret murderers, the message may be misleading.
The debate about the efficiency can be seen here.
Love life, stop AIDS. 2006 (Switzerland)
Stop Aids is an example of one of the longest running and most carefully evaluated social marketing programs for AIDS prevention in the world. Its initial audience was gay men, but as the epidemic began to expand it reached out to a truly national audience. Its most important difference was to constantly measure not only condom use, but changing attitudes toward the epidemic.
The national Aids prevention campaign has never tried to get its message across with scenarios that transmit fear, threats or horror. The campaign has always sought to draw on scientific facts in order to make a distinction between situations which could potentially lead to infection with HIV and situations which are not associated with a risk. The campaign supports the belief that it is not the task of the state to pass judgement on the sexual practices adopted by individuals, and has avoided mixing public health aspects with moral values.
The tag line in the posters is: "No action without protection." I got my Aha momnet while I saw the tag line. I like how the designer manipulate the hockey and fencing players wearing nothing to symbolize no protection.
I am interested in how efficiency can fear and humor be in the design. I think for my thesis, this is one aspect I want to explore.
Reference:
- Ehlers, Dineke. 2007. "The efficiency of fear appeals in South African HIV/AIDS campaign texts." Pretoria, South Africa. University of South Africa.
- Mohan, Shivani. 2009. "Humor and design." Chicago. IIT Institute of Design.
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