You may have seen an image from one of the most sexually charged HIV prevention campaigns over the years, but you might not know much about the organisation behind it, so I figured this would be a good opportunity to introduce you to AIDES and show you a few of the most provocative sexual health campaigns they have released over the years. The particular campaign (or as they say in France “campagne”) I am referring to depicts a sexy man having sexual intercourse with a scorpion, and even though this image is meant to deter people from engaging in risky sex, some people have found the imagery from this campaign to be extremely appealing and exciting.
French community-based non-profit organisation AIDES was founded in 1984 by Daniel Defert, after his partner Michel Foucault died from HIV/AIDS related issues. The name is a reference to the French noun “aide”, which means to help or assist, but the founder chose to pluralise the word, because he wanted the word to represent the multiple types of help his organisation provides to the community. The word is also closely aligned to AIDS to acknowledge the organisation’s goal of bringing people living with HIV/AIDS together with their loved ones and to defend the rights of people and communities affected by HIV/AIDS.
AIDES is an organisation that provides male and female condoms to those who want them, releases campaigns on television, has syringe exchange programs, provides home help, publishes French AIDS related magazine Remaides, offers legal advice to HIV-positive people and has a free information service phone line. The organisation uses agencies to help them get their campaign messages into the public arena, with one powerful AIDS awareness cartoon produced by Goodby, Silverstein and Partners featuring the sexual adventures of a cat named “Smutley”, which ends with an extremely powerful message that says “He has nine lives. You only have one. Protect yourself.”
2005 Campaign
The 2005 campaign involved a naked man having what was implied to be sexual intercourse with a scorpion. The position of the claws and stinger make it clear that this man is about to become infected with HIV, with the stinger designed to release poison into its victim, with the poison in this case being HIV. The text accompanying this campaign says “Without a condom you’re sleeping with AIDS. Protect yourself.”
2011 Campaign
Smutley the cat is a fictional character set in a 1920s time period, who is a sex-crazed feline that humps just about everything in sight, without using any protection or seeking consent from those he shows a sexual interest in. If you watch the video from this campaign, you will see that he’s happy to penetrate a variety of different species through a really well executed piece of advertising.
2014 Campaign
With an image of two naked men sitting at a table removing peas from their pods, along with the words “No Condom. No Sex.”, this campaign shows the men staring at each other intensely. In the video version of this campaign, you see a growing number of empty seed pods to the side of each man, with the peas emptying out on the surface of the table in front of them.
2016 Campaign
The theme for the 2016 campaign was ‘Colours of Love’ with the message being “Make Love Not War – Blend Together. Safe Together”. This is a very artistic piece and the agency involved with this campaign put together superb work that captures your attention and helps you take notice of multiple messages, including sexual health and racism. You can also see the different paint colours, with green paint around the genitals of one guy and on the buttocks of another quickly drawing your attention to this part of the male anatomy.
2018 Campaign
With PrEP becoming more widely available, AIDES released a campaign called ‘PrEP for Love’ to make people more aware of the availability of PrEP throughout the country (and the world). As they have done with many of their campaigns, several versions of each campaign were created to suit a particular audience, whether it be homosexual, bisexual or heterosexual (to limit the sexuality to just a few).
I applaud AIDES for the extremely interesting sexual health campaigns they have released over the years and for their ongoing work with helping the HIV/AIDS community. Their website is vibrant and includes both English and French versions, although I wasn’t able to get the English version to work for me, but this can be achieved using a third-party service to translate each page into the preferred language. I did learn French in high school, but it was just a brief introduction to the language and I chose not to take up the subject full-time, which has put me at a disadvantage when it comes to fluently speaking the French language.
These are just a handful of the AIDES campaigns produced over the years, but there have been other ones created to educate and assist. The scorpion HIV/AIDS campaign is an image I have seen numerous times and I find it extremely appealing, as the scorpion resonates with me whenever I see it based on it being a symbol of positivity. There is also a straight version from the same campaign involving a woman and a spider, although I won’t include that imagery here, but it’s available on the web if you would like to take a look.
You might be wondering why I have chosen to include a safer sex article at a website about bug chasing and that’s because this website provides a mix of different articles relating to HIV/AIDS, which is a theme that is explored extensively here and the organisation this article is about primarily focuses on HIV/AIDS awareness. I have also seen bug chasers and gift givers sharing the scorpion image from this campaign through social media, so I wanted to share more information about where this image came from and some of the important work the AIDES organisation has done for the people of France and those abroad as well.
Further Reading:
- AIDES Website – https://www.aides.org/en
Further Watching:
- AIDES YouTube Channel – https://www.youtube.com/c/aides/videos
Featured Photo: AIDES / Wiki Commons
Article ID: CC033
Version Control: 1.0 – March 23, 2022: Original article published.
Always thought that the famous scorpion picture was posted as a hot twisted turn on. I had no idea that it was meant to discourage guys from having good natural bare anal sex. I certainly get turned on rather than repelled by it ☣️☣️
I initially thought the same thing Jez. I have seen guys posting this graphic on Twitter over the years, along with some pretty hot text referring to themselves as being a bug chaser or a gift giver, depending on their position. When I started researching it, I was quite surprised to discover its origins. I would love to know how the general public have viewed this campaign to see if they have similar thoughts about the response they get from the message, but I get the same reaction to it as you have described and I like it.
The picture of the guy and the scorpion makes me want to have bareback sex with a high viral load top
That picture does a lot for me too and I am embracing this campaign in a particular way, which might not have been the way the campaign was intended to be portrayed.
The 2016 campaign pic, just kind of makes you want HIV lol. I’m with a friend and he says that the tobacco companies here in the US actually pays for and gives away tons of free “Smoking Prohibited” and “No Smoking” signs for restaurants, companies and stuff because they make people think about smoking and the signs always remind them to smoke. That’s kinda like these pics and campaigns lol, they make you want BB sex even more 🙂
The 2016 campaign is my second favourite and the imagery definitely stirs up exciting emotions for me. My eyes go directly towards the green and I’m loving what I’m seeing and it’s like those two green areas need to come together through a session of bareback sex. That’s how I see it anyway, although others may see it differently. I didn’t know the tobacco companies did this and I guess it’s good for them in two ways – it makes it look like they are trying to do the right thing and if it boosts sales, then I guess that’s an added bonus. The 2016 campaign definitely makes me want to have bareback sex, so it sounds like the campaign is leading to some interesting results.
I think the scorpion pic got me thinking about bug chasing and really aroused me sexually. I imagined myself as the naked man and submitting to the scorpion’s “sting.” Obviously, this picture did not deter me, but only fueled my journey down the bug chasing “road!” Thanks for this article, Jason!
I see myself in the same situation as how you imagine what is happening in this picture. From the moment I first saw the picture, I wanted to know more about it. I’ve seen a number of guys posting this picture over the years through social media from a bug chasing and gift giving perspective, so it definitely resonates with those of us who have an interest in bug chasing and/or gift giving. I would love to know how this message was received in 2005 when the campaign was first released, because it’s still an inspirational campaign to this day, whether it has the intended outcome or not.
I was reading and was a little shocked that you wrote about this subject, then you addressed lol.
I like to explore everything there is to know about bug chasing, gift giving and HIV. I thought carefully about whether I should publish this article based on the subject matter of this website, but I think you appreciate the relevance now that you have read the article and see the connection.
This is an interesting article Jason. I think the scorpion represents a HIV+ top while the guy on top is a negative bottom who is about receive a toxic load
Thanks Alfred, I’m glad you found the article interesting. I agree with you about the scorpion representing an HIV+ top who is about to infect the HIV-negative guy with the virus.
The first picture of the guy about to be pierced by the scorpion is very hot at least to me and reminds me of a pozzing scene I had with an escort with a scorpion tattoo I had a few years back. Unfortunately he was on meds so nothing took. It does make me horny for unmedicated “scorpion cum however and I am pretty sure this is not the intended effect!
That first picture is extremely hot to me as well and it’s part of the inspiration resulting in my usage of the scorpion at my website. I’m glad this picture brought back this memory for you and it sure does sound like a powerful experience you had with the escort. Even though it didn’t take, it sounds like the moment you spent together created a memory you will always appreciate. I also agree that excitement was probably not their intention when they created this campaign, but it’s certainly a reaction received by many. Thanks for sharing more about your experience too, it sounds like it was a really intense encounter.