Treating AIDS: Politics of Difference, Paradox of Prevention

1. Treating Us, Treating Them

1 Standing on the outdoor platform of the Metrorail stop at the University of Miami on a blisteringly hot day, I was struck by a large black, white, and red poster (see figure 1.1). The poster depicted numerous celebrities, scientists, political leaders, and social activists standing and walking barefoot in graduated rows of concrete blocks. Nelson Mandela, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Alicia Keys, Elton John, Will Smith, Zackie Achmat, and Elizabeth Taylor, among others, were shown stepping into cement and leaving a footprint—a metaphor for their commitment to the global fight against HIV/AIDS.1 But the familiar faces were not what drew me to the poster. I was captivated by the message “we all have AIDS,” which was written in large white and red capital letters across the bodies of those pictured. A much smaller phrase in the lower left corner completed the message: “if one of us does.” “We all have AIDS” dwarfed both the final phrase and the human images. I saw this sign repeatedly for several months in early 2006 in Miami’s Metrorail system. The poster, it turned out, was part of what was reportedly the largest public service multimedia campaign about HIV/AIDS ever launched in the United States. The initiative was a collaborative effort between the fashion designer Kenneth Cole, chairman of the American Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR), and KnowAIDS, a multimedia campaign funded by the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, Viacom, and the CBS Corporation. The KnowAIDS campaign was a multiyear public service messaging initiative started in 2003 to “educate the general population about the impact of AIDS globally, and to promote prevention and testing among higher-risk populations , including young people, African Americans, Latinos, women, and men who have sex with men” (PRNewswire 2003). 1 Treating us, Treating Them 2 TreATIng AIDS The “We All Have AIDS” campaign, as it is called, built on the momentum of KnowAIDS. To raise awareness of the damaging effects of stigma in the prevention and eradication of HIV/AIDS, the campaign used print, outdoor, radio, and online advertising depicting leaders in entertainment, politics, and science standing in solidarity with those affected by HIV/AIDS. AmfAR describes the campaign as “a powerful display of the unity and solidarity we all share with the 40 million men, women, and children living with HIV/AIDS around the world” (American Foundation for AIDS Research 2006, 1). In speaking specifically about the people depicted in the ads, Kenneth Cole states: “With help from these extraordinary role models we hope to foster solidarity so that the world can focus on improving HIV prevention and treatment programs, and support necessary AIDS research” (American Foundation for AIDS Research 2006, 9). In addition to the public service announcements and media outreach, the campaign ran print advertisements in magazines such as Vogue and Rolling Stone and sold $35 limited-edition “We all have AIDS” T-shirts—products well out of reach of millions of people living with HIV/AIDS—in upscale stores such as Barneys New York and Selfridges, in London. By calling attention to unified responsibility and the global response to HIV/ AIDS, the campaign and its messages and sponsors serve as powerful tropes for recent transformations in global politics, economic consumerism, and biomedical and technological advances. The campaign marks the remarkable coming together of diverse individuals, institutions, and interests. Industry leaders in biotechnology, science, entertainment, and politics along with the fashion industry, international nonprofits, private foundations, and multibillion-dollar corporations collaborate to portray a unified front in fighting HIV/AIDS around fIgure 1.1 “We All Have AIDS” public service announcement print and outdoor advertisement commemorating World AIDS Day 2005. Kenneth Cole Productions, Inc. Used with kind permission. TreATIng uS, TreATIng Them 3 the world. The multimedia campaign focuses on leaders and experts, referred to as “extraordinary role models,” and their “unity and solidarity” with those who are living with HIV/AIDS. Those who are depicted as “higher-risk populations” or the “40 million men, women, and children living with HIV/AIDS around the world” are not the targets of the campaign. It is aimed at us, the “general population .” We become the visual and material consumers of this campaign, aligning ourselves with these leaders and activists, sympathizing with those afflicted with HIV/AIDS, and buying $35 T-shirts at high-end retailers. The campaign calls on us to “have” HIV/AIDS even though we do not directly experience...