Country living

Kam mentioned seeing some cute billboards in Toronto: in the Marlboro font, white text on red background, they say "Welcome to Condom Country." Then there's two men in a suggestive pose, and the tag line "Ride Safely." You can view some of the ads (created by the AIDS Committee of Toronto), and even download PDF versions, by following that link.

But nothing's ever entirely straight(ahem)forward. When I Googled for the phrase, to see if the ads were online, I also found a discussion/rant about certain responses to the ads. The ads apparently began running last year, with a much more direct Marlboro parody, featuring rugged men on horses. Some other group began putting up altered versions of the posters, featuring the same sorts of pictures but the slogan "Real men ride without saddles. AIDS hysteria is on the rise in Toronto." The rant discusses a little about the history of using fear of STDs/STIs to control sexual behavior; a fascinating topic.

And approaching the ads from another angle entirely, apparently Marlboro considered suing ACT over the ads, for copyright infringement. I'm guessing it never happened.

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