PSA Posters from the Early AIDS Years

Posted on June 11, 2012 by Brooke Shelby Biggs

This week’s film is David Weissman’s We Were Here, which deals with the impact of HIV/AIDS in San Francisco from the early 1980s to the early 1990s. It will air on Thursday, June 14, 2012 at 10 PM (check local listings).

We dug around and found some old posters created by public health agencies to help inform and educate the public about HIV and AIDS. Some of these will really take you back. Here’s a few of our favorites, and visit AVERT’s poster gallery for more.

British Government campaign poster against HIV/AIDS. In 1986, the British Government mounted an HIV/AIDS poster and leaflet campaign with the slogan "Don't Aid AIDS", which later changed to "Don't die of ignorance". Credit: Crown Copyright and Department Of Health

A message about transmission myths, from 1987. Credit: San Fransisco AIDS Foundation.

Prominent poster produced in America in 1987, tackling discrimination against people living with HIV. The image was inspired by Ryan White, a 13-year-old boy who was barred from school in 1985 because he was living with HIV. Credit: Centre for Attitudinal Healing.

Australian poster campaign from 1989 featuring 'Condoman', a character designed to target young Aboriginal audiences with safer sex messages. Credit: Australian Government Department Of Health And Ageing

Please don’t miss We Were Here, premiering on Independent Lens Thursday, June 14, 2012 at 10 PM on your local PBS station (check listings).

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  • http://www.expressimpact.com/ Brittany Collins

    As an individual with a profound respect for documentaries, I think that the film “We Were Here” will undoubtedly encourage the community to reflect on the early discoveries, myths, and collective response to the AIDS epidemic. This film has the power to create a meaningful discussion about the issue where there is an estimated 33.3 million people living with the condition worldwide. As research and technology advance, the merge of media and storytelling can serve as a distinctly informative resource as a means to educate and heighten awareness.

  • bobabowie

    This Documentary shows what can happen when politics trumps science. Had the Health Department been allowed to shut down the Bathhouses in the Castro Dist., Which had been identified by Health Officials as the disease’s “Delivery System”, AIDS (They even changed the name of the disease from GRID to be “Less Offensive” to Gays) would have been contained within the radius of several blocks and today AIDS/GRID would be no more than a few lines in a medical textbook. Because of an INTENTIONAL failure to follow common sense rules regarding epidemiology we now have a worldwide pandemic with no end in sight.