Has Sexual Frustration Ever Been This… Sexy? Gorgeous French Ads Combat AIDS

AIDES is one of the most important associations fighting against AIDS in France and in Europe. It has been fighting for the past 30 years against the social injustices revealed by the epidemic and fighting for an access to treatment and prevention means for everyone. And now TBWA\Paris is joining them in this conquest.

Since 1987, AIDES has been trying to push public authorities to lift the taboos that were forbidding advertising condoms. In 2006 AIDES reinvented the condom for 20 euro cents, reaffirming its fight for an accessible prevention to the largest possible number. Since then prevention has evolved a lot. Prevention means have multiplied and diversified, but the condom remains a major lever to reduce infections. By emphasizing the crucial role of the condom, AIDES stays faithful to its fight: To inform, enlighten - and always in its off-the-wall and provocative tone that has made its campaigns successful for almost 15 years.

"NO SEX": A Campaign that Targets Everybody

AIDES has been reminding us since 1984 : everybody is concerned by the epidemic, whatever their age or their sexual orientation

- 37 years is the average age of discovery of seropositivity in France

- The proportion of people over 50 years who discover their seropositivity hasn’t ceased increasing since 2009

- 37 % of new infections touch the homosexual community

- 10% of new infections concern 15-24 year olds, which means 2 young people are affected every day

That’s why TBWA\PARIS imagined 4 short films as naked and bare as they are aesthetic, each one developed in print format and targeting one of these populations. They are named 'Peas', 'Knitting', 'Pearls' and 'Puzzle'; evocative names that reveal what the long winter nights can look like... without a condom. It's a smart and viral campaign, far from developing a moralistic speech, that ends with this clear message: "No condom, No sex".