SWITZERLAND: Daring AIDS campaign triggers debate in Switzerland

Record ID: 347907

  • Title: SWITZERLAND: Daring AIDS campaign triggers debate in Switzerland
  • Date: 31st July 2014
  • Summary: POSTERS AT BUS STOP (SOUNDBITE) (French) PASSER-BY MICHEL SAYING: "If it can raise awareness among young people that they need to protect themselves, yes, why not... I don't think the poster in itself is in any way pornographic." TRAM DRIVING ALONG STREET
  • Embargoed: 15th August 2014 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Switzerland
  • Country: Switzerland
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA6FN2QCM0PX8XA2UADBDIGHDA0
  • Story Text: Passers-by were divided in Switzerland on Wednesday (July 30) over posters showing gay and straight couples in a range of sexual positions that appeared on public transport as part of an AIDS prevention campaign launched earlier in the week.
    The Swiss Federal Office of Public Health's "Love Life Campaign", launched in May, started with an appeal to the Swiss to come and participate in it by posing and being photographed in sexual positions. About 300 people answered, out of which five couples, three heterosexual, one lesbian and one gay, were finally selected.
    Since Monday (July 28), ten intimate pictures of the couples in various states of nudity have been emblazoned on 1,900 billboards all over Switzerland. All genitals are hidden by the white condom symbol of the campaign reading: "Love Life - no regrets".
    On the streets of Geneva, reactions were mixed.
    Some said the campaign was doing well in sending a message to the young people that they should protect themselves.
    "We are in 2014, there are far more shocking things, and I think it does well convey the message, the image does convey well the message that one has to protect himself," 31 year-old Tigui, a mother of a four-year-old little girl, said.
    "If it can raise awareness among young people that they need to protect themselves, yes, why not... I don't think the poster in itself is in any way pornographic," passer-by Michel said.
    But for others, the posters were too shocking to be displayed across public spaces.
    "They are on the edge of pornography. I mean, you can see two people having sex, that's it, and moreover, they are naked, or half-naked. Clearly, this is not something children should see," 22-year-old Lida said. She suggested that authorities could have displayed them in more specific and closed spaces like bars or restaurants, reserved to a warned adult public.
    "I can't imagine myself explaining to my four-year old little girl why they are all naked on a poster... That's it. Yes, a little bit [shocked]. There are certain things that children should only discover with time," mother of five, Stephanie, said.
    Several associations described the campaign poster as "pornographic", including the "Futur ch" organisation.
    "If we give up on every single norm as far as sexuality is concerned, sexuality can also destroy a society. And this is what the Swiss Federal Office of Health is advocating for, the destruction of social order in Switzerland, of family and faithfulness", 'Futur CH' member Dominik Lusser said.
    Lusser claims that 35 teenagers and children, aged from seven to 17, have contacted the association either through their parents or of their own accord, asking them to take action to have the posters withdrawn. In May, when the campaign was launched, the Swiss Evangelic Network launched a petition against it and got almost 10,000 signatures, they say.
    But Head of the Infectious diseases Prevention and Promotion service at the Swiss Federal Office of Public Health, Roger Staub, who initiated the campaign at the cost of two million swiss francs (2,199,740 USD), said the aim of the campaign was to promote a message of pleasure as well as of responsibility.
    "In health promotion and prevention, there is a lot of evidence that messages of danger and creating fear has short term effect. If we want to achieve long-term behaviour change, we need to address the issue and to motivate with good feelings, because otherwise people will just not think about the danger," he said.
    According to figures released in local newspaper 'Le Matin', 575 new AIDS cases were registered in Switzerland in 2013, a drop of eight percent from the previous year.
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