This site requires Javascript to be turned on. Please enable Javascript and reload the page.

Safer at Home: Exploring the ONE Archives Collection

Week 11 (July 6, 2020)

The poster collection at the ONE Archives includes many examples, of campaigns funded by different agencies and aimed at different viewers but all promoting condom use during the AIDS epidemic.The research is clear that abstinence is 100% effective in preventing AIDS, but impossible to implement as a universal public health strategy. These campaigns promoted the next best thing—condoms as a form of harm reduction or risk mitigation. They showed individuals how to still engage in sexual intercourse but almost entirely reduce the risk of transmission. Their aim was to make condom use widespread and accepted through education. Destigmatizing condom usage through consistent, direct, and varied messages was essential. The posters were clever, catchy, and appealing. Using humor and appeals to common sense, they raised awareness and promoted safer behavior.

Replace the condom with a mask and references to AIDS with COVID and these messages work as well today as they did in the late 80’s and 90’s. Then and now, risk reduction is essential to creating a safe environment. Wearing protection is not just about protecting oneself but also others. Neither mask or condom do any good if worn incorrectly, kept in one’s pocket, or not used at all. Though the act of wearing a condom or a mask is simple, getting compliance is challenging. The number of these posters shows the amount of messaging and educating required to change behavior—a reminder especially apt at a moment when the number of cases of COVID in the state of California is rising to new heights each day.

This page has paths:

Contents of this path:

Contents of this path:

Text continues: "For a latex condom to be effective against AIDS, you've got to put it on the correct appendage. Use a condom. Barring abstinence, it's the best way to prevent AIDS. For more information about HIV and AIDS, call the AIDS Action Committee Hotline at 1-800-235-2331." Black text on white background. The center of the poster contains a color photograph of a yellow condom inside a clear wrapper.
Text continues: "Wearing condoms saves lives. Maybe yours. Your partner's. Or the loves of future partners. And though condoms can't cure AIDS, they can stop it. But only if you wear them. So make a habit of sleeping with condoms. As though your life depended on it. Use condoms. There's living proof they stop AIDS." Black text on gray background. The upper half of the poster contains a black and white photograph of an unwrapped condom.
Text continues: "If you bring AIDS into a relationship, it can infect your partner and your unborn children. The only 100% sure protection is doing without sex completely. Next best is using a latex condom with every partner, male or female, every time. Remember, sharing needles for drugs can give you AIDS. Drugs and alcohol affect your judgement, too, and make it hard to stay safe. For more information, call the AIDS hotline at 1-800-922-2437 in Southern California or 1-800-367-2437 in Northern California. AIDS. It's up to you." Black text on white background. The lower right quadrant of the poster contains a black and white photograph of a condom and a feather.