The sorta-ides of AIDS awareness month (or, an excuse for me to kvetch)

Remember when Krucoff was going through his pious stage? I miss that. Herewith is mines, not like it ever ended. I have a talent for being a self-righteous dickhead, and I don't even have the justification of working in the nonprofit sector. I'm a copywriter. I'm not a Completely Evil Copywriter, however, so that's why I'd like to draw your attention to the image on the left. Click on the pic to view it close up, because otherwise you won't be able to fully grok what I'm talking about.

So here on the left we have a print ad for Equinox Gym. A sweaty gym queen emerging from the locker room (or perhaps the steam room, ahem), accompanied by the copy, "LIFE = OUTLIVING YOUR ENEMIES." On the right, for comparison, I've added the iconic SILENCE = DEATH ad campaign made famous by ACT UP. It's been 20 years since SILENCE = DEATH was born, and I'm sure Larry Kramer would agree when I say You've come a long way, baby.

(The Gays are not to blame for this, of course. Anyone who works in the advertising world knows that it's full of dudes like this guy, who "appropriate" Minor Threat covers for Nike ads, and this guy, who comes back to creative with shit like this.)

I wonder if whoever did this Equinox ad campaign is even old enough to recall the halcyon days when people actually *did* die of AIDS and outlive their enemies and whatnot. Could we just have some fucking accountability, some standards in the ad world? I know, I know, I need to learn to be less doctrinaire, and I have other things I should be freaking out about right now. Viz. 4.5 percent, you say? O RLY. Why don't you talk to these people and see what they have to say?

PS Fuck Christmas.

Edit: See, this is what happens when you're impatient. I emailed Copyranter about this the other day because I was all "now that I don't have a blog how can I show that I care about evil and social injustice" and then I realized yesterday "WAIT I DO HAVE A BLOG (sort of)" and then after I posted this he posted this. Hooray, sometimes you just can't win.