Gay men told to drop their load to end HIV in NZAF’s latest campaign via Frost*Collective
In an unprecedented move, a new campaign created by Sydney’s Frost*Collective is encouraging gay men to drop their load to end HIV transmission.
This campaign stars comedian Tom Sainsbury and has been delivered by ‘Ending HIV’ – a community-focused behaviour change programme run by the New Zealand AIDS Foundation (NZAF) to reach men who have sex with men.
Says Michael Shaw, marketing manager for Ending HIV: “We’re unequivocally telling New Zealanders that if someone living with HIV has had an undetectable viral load for more than six months, HIV does not transmit through sex – even if condoms aren’t being used.”
An undetectable viral load is when the amount of HIV in a person’s blood is no longer able to be detected by a standard viral load test.
This latest message from Ending HIV is in support of the global U=U movement, which declares that Undetectable = Untransmittable.
Says Shaw: “Evidence has been mounting for a long time now and with every new study saying the same thing, we made the decision to make this statement.
“People are still using ‘unsafe’ as a synonym for ‘condomless’. That needs to change. We feel proud to tell New Zealanders that dropping their load has never been so risk- free.”
Kiwis will see this message popping up everywhere – on the radio during their morning drive to work, flicking through Grindr, or walking down main streets all over the country.
To spread the word further, Ending HIV have created 1,500 pun-filled cum rags, to educate about undetectable while loads are dropped.
Ending HIV are expecting complaints as some people will find this message a bit hard-hitting.
Says Shaw: “We’ll always ruffle a few feathers when we’re talking about sex. But we’re not going to end HIV by whispering about it.”
A 2014 study found that only 7% of Kiwis would be prepared to have a sexual relationship with someone living with HIV. Only 45% would be willing to eat food prepared by an HIV positive person.
For the 3500 New Zealanders living with HIV, this campaign will help tackle some of the stigma they still face, particularly within their own community.
Maintaining an undetectable viral load might not be possible for everyone who is diagnosed with HIV, even if they take their medication as prescribed. It is important that people living with HIV are not pressured or expected to have an undetectable viral load.
Regardless of achieving undetectable or not, getting on treatment early gives someone diagnosed with HIV the best change of leading a long and healthy life.
New Zealand AIDS Foundation (Ending HIV)
Michael Shaw, Marketing Manager
Anthony Walton, Marketing and Communications Lead
Trak Gray: Marketing Specialist
Production Company: Chillbox
Director: Gabriel Lunte
Agency: Frost*Collective
Media Agency: Mediacom
7 Comments
No doubt this message will be followed two years later by campaign suggesting that wearing condoms (whether HIV is detectable or not) is not a bad thing.
To me this is a questionable message because, as we know, it plays into human nature, i.e. “it’s all cool now.” Fucking with impunity (regardless of gender) has very high odds in ending in tears.
I’m not talking about morality but rather health instead. Hope it works out in the end.
Can we please stop straight men from doing ads for gay people!
This is terrible. It might have been well intentioned but the “Now you can have sex without a condom because it’s not-transmitable” it’s one of the most irresponsible messages you can be sending out there to young people, homo and heterosexual sexual alike. This is horrible and the cum-rag, well, gross.
Lets launch a campaign to stop design agencies from making TV ads…for client’s sake more than anything.
I’m gay, I work in this industry. Dunno how I feel about these ads. Looking at that street poster, with the sub head saying ‘Today’s treatments can make your viral load undetectable’… shouldn’t that have read ‘untransmittable’…?
I mean if you’re going to qualify a statement as brash as ‘drop your load’ … with its double meaning and all… should it not have backed itself up by saying ‘you literally can’t spread HIV if you’re undetectable’…?
In any case, I’ve been educated. I had no idea undetectable = untrasmittable. That’s great news in any case.
Nice ad, beautifully performed, but am I reading this wrong or is this two guys who aren’t in an existing sexual relationship going inside to have unprotected sex? What about herpes and any number of other STIs? Great to hear the HIV thing can be sorted, but shouldn’t we all still be having protected sex until both partners have had an STI test and shared the results?
The above article “Short-term on Hiv Supplementation and Highly Active Antiretroviral Treatment Adherence, CD4+ Cell Counts, and Human Immunodeficiency Virus Viral Load” from the National Institute of Health (NIH) may answer your question: Here is a quote: “In the era of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART), human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)–infected individuals still use complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) widely. Studies have shown that individuals mainly use CAM as a complementary rather than an alternative treatment to HAART to alleviate symptoms associated with HIV disease and its treatment or to improve quality of life.” Consult a herbal doctor on hiv cure homeofnaturalremedy8@gmail.com