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The first new advert tackling HIV-related stigma and prejudice is being screened on Scottish televisionRichard Angell is chief executive of Terrence Higgins Trust
Almost 40 years since the last television advert on HIV, the long wait for another is finally over. That’s because our powerful new 60-second film – Stigma is more harmful than HIV – is currently being shown on Scottish television to bring all the hard-fought progress that’s been made in the last four decades directly into living rooms.
Including that, as it says in the advert, one pill a day means HIV cannot be passed on and you can live a long, healthy life – just like anyone else.
For many years, I’ve heard from people living with HIV that there needs to be an update that’s on the same scale as the Government’s ‘Don’t Die of Ignorance’ campaign back in 1987. That iconic public health campaign was accurate at the time and undoubtedly saved lives, but it has also cast a long shadow by terrifying a generation about HIV.
This autumn’s new ad campaign is funded by the Scottish Government as part of its commitment to ending new HIV cases in Scotland by 2030, which is why this is finally happening now.
HIV was put on the telly 40 years ago because it was spreading, people were dying and, of course, there was no internet back then. Once that mercifully changed with effective treatments, it wasn’t considered a priority to update the public at large.
But now the Scottish Government has a clear, life-changing goal to achieve.
Ahead of work beginning, it was critical to explore the Scottish public’s knowledge and attitudes around HIV. Despite the huge medical progress that’s been made, the results of YouGov polling of 1,000 adults in Scotland made for pretty stark reading for those of us determined to move the dial.
Examples of what we found include that only a third of people would be happy to kiss someone living with HIV, despite it being known since the 1980s that HIV can never be passed on in this way. While almost half of Scots would be ashamed to tell other people they were HIV positive and just a third are aware that people living with HIV and on effective treatment cannot pass it on to their partners.
Upon seeing these results, it was important that the new advert couldn’t simply update people on all the medical progress and reframe HIV as a good news story. We also quite clearly needed to tackle what out-dated information generates – stigma and discrimination. Because, as our patron singer Beverley Knight often remarks, it’s stigma that kills people from the inside.
The fact is we absolutely can end new HIV cases by 2030 in Scotland. In fact, Scotland could even be the first country to do it. But we cannot do it if we cannot reduce HIV stigma. It stops people testing and accessing life-saving treatment.
So please – whatever you do today – watch the film that people living with HIV have been waiting decades to be televised.
For more information and to watch the film, visit HIVStigma.scot
