The Grim Reaper
National Advisory Committee on AIDS (Australia)1987
The Grim Reaper is a 1987 60-second television commercial for National Advisory Committee on AIDS, created by Grey Advertising.
The line
Always use condoms. Always.
Why it works
A hooded Death waits at the end of a bowling alley and rolls a ball into men, women and children standing in as pins, while a grave narrator warns that AIDS is no longer confined to gay men and drug users. Written by Siimon Reynolds at Grey Advertising for the National Advisory Committee on AIDS, the 60-second spot first aired on April 5, 1987. It is studied as the definitive case for, and against, fear appeals in public health. A Sydney doctor recalled that the media had largely ignored the epidemic until these ads pushed AIDS onto front pages, and the Treasurer then found money for a national response in the 1987 Budget. Yet the spot was pulled after three weeks amid public outcry, and Dr Ron Penny, who had diagnosed Australia's first case, later admitted that viewers came to associate the Reaper with gay men, deepening stigma. The predicted catastrophe never came: new HIV infections peaked in 1987 and fell steadily through the 1990s.
Techniques
- Fear appeal A hooded Death bowls down men, women and children as pins, warning that the disease is no longer confined to any one group.
- Shock and provocation Deliberately horrifying imagery of people knocked down like pins forces attention onto the epidemic, at the cost of public outcry and deepening stigma.
Sources · 4
Updated
