Withdrawal of campaign against AIDS sparks polemic in France

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Banned poster. Photo: EFE

France's Advertising Standards Authority has withdrawn an advertisement which shows two men having sex by arguing the images are too explicit.

The advertisement, which shows two naked men on the bed kissing each other, announces four homosexual people discover every day in France are HIV positive and seeks to make people aware of the importance of protection against AIDS.

French organizations devoted to the fight against AIDS such as Act Up Paris criticized on Wednesday that advertising is judged depending on whether its characters are gays or heterosexuals. "This kind of measures are not taken when the protagonists are heterosexuals. It is an insult to the gay community", a spokesman for the Act Up Paris organization said.

The French organization called for the campaign to be broadcast in gay media as well as in the rest of the media and asked France's Health Ministry to condemn the Advertising Standards Authority's veto.