HIV Prevention Ads Yanked in Australia
An ad campaign to promote safe sex featuring a gay couple has been yanked from Queensland bus shelters following complaints from an antigay Christian group.
The Herald Sun reports on the objections to the Rip and Roll campaign launched last week by the Queensland Association for Healthy Communities, which receives state funding. The ads in Brisbane featured a gay couple embracing and holding an unopened condom packet.
“Adshel, the company that provides advertising for Brisbane’s bus shelters; Goa Billboards; and the Advertising Standards Bureau were targeted in an orchestrated campaign by the Australian Christian Lobby (ACL),” reports the Sun.
ACL Queensland executive director Wendy Francis said she objected to the sexual nature of the ad, not the gay identity of the men pictured. Last year, she ran for senate as a Family First candidate and was forced to apologize for a tweet that compared granting marriage rights for same-sex couples to allowing child abuse.
Tags: Brisbane gay, LGBT Queensland, Queensland Association for Healthy Communities, rip and roll, Wendy Francis
Update: After a public outcry and more than 95,000 people joining an anti-homophobia campaign, the rip&roll bus shelters were reinstated in Brisbane, and the company gave Healthy Communities two weeks free run at the end of the campaign.
More info at http://www.qahc.org.au/ and to support the campaign, visit http://www.facebook.com/rip.roll.