The city of New York is advertising safer sex with a shock video. This scares both positive and negative people and is counterproductive - especially as the advert uses half-truths
A new HIV awareness video from New York looks like the cinema trailer for the latest sci-fi thriller: "If you get HIV, it's never just HIV," murmurs a sonorous male voice. He then goes on to list the terrible diseases that HIV-positive people are at risk of despite taking medication: bone loss, dementia and anal cancer.
The whole thing is illustrated with pseudo-scientific X-ray and tomography simulations: Bones burst when there is talk of bone loss, and the brain melts away in computer green when the keyword is dementia. A real tumour is shown for the keyword anal cancer. The anxious-looking victims are all well-built boys with clean skin and plucked eyebrows. Of course: the New York Health Department made the video especially for young gays.
The advert has been making the rounds of the gay media and blogs in recent weeks. Gay health experts protested that the advert stigmatised people with HIV. In Germany, for example, queer.de reported critically on the advert. We took this as an opportunity to take a closer look at the statements made in the advert.
"The video message is not completely wrong from a medical point of view, but it is incomplete," criticises Armin Schafberger, Medical Officer at Deutsche AIDS-Hilfe. This is because the diseases mentioned do indeed occur statistically more frequently in HIV-positive people than in HIV-negative people. However, those who start HIV treatment in good time, tolerate their medication well, live a healthy life and take advantage of preventive medical check-ups are very likely to avoid these diseases. HIV-positive people can then live to be almost as old as HIV-negative people. According to the latest findings, however, a somewhat faster ageing process is inevitable - which can then also cause certain age-related diseases earlier.
The New York horror film therefore fuels fears in both positive and negative people by exaggerating and simplifying excessively. In addition, HIV is only one risk factor among many for the diseases mentioned. For example, alcohol also increases the likelihood of dementia. "It's difficult to work out how relevant the individual factors are," explains Armin Schafberger. Dementia or bone loss can also be prevented with a healthy diet and regular exercise.
There is no room for these important subtleties in the New York video. But that's not even the worst of it. "There is a danger that the viewer will suppress the risks of HIV infection precisely because they are visualised so horribly," warns Schafberger. This phenomenon has long been known in research: Shock advertising does more harm than good. Fear is not a good counsellor.
The video could also lead to gay men not getting tested for HIV because they are afraid of the diagnosis. This would increase the likelihood of them starting treatment too late and actually developing serious secondary diseases.
The video on Youtube
