watch

this advert will shock

An excellent example of shock tactics in television advertising. This is a hard hitting, well directed campaign, created for MTV to communicate a very serious message about the spread of HIV to females under thirty. The target audience is directly addressed, both through the characters shown and the position of the commercial (MTV directed at teenagers and young adults).It breaks down preconceptions of the virus only circulating in homosexual communities, which is a barrier that needed to be overcome to reach everyone who ould be affected. Hetrosexual couples have been used to get this message accross. The main concept is that unprotected sex is a risk that could kill you, possibly inspired by russian roulette - well this is what I thought of.

There has been much discussion and contraversy surounding his advert, due to making the victims seem oblivious and the carriers vicious psychopaths and blase about the violent deaths. The message being put accross suggests a sudden and definate death which is far from the ruth as it is a long suffering disease. It has been sen as insensitive to families of victims and victims themselves as many would have been ignorant or ill informed about the sprad of the disease, some say it is the lifestyle that needs to be challenged rather than the individual.