150 Days And Counting: Obama's Silence on AIDS is Deafening

Campaign to Prod President Obama to Act on AIDS Has Included Thought-Provoking Viral Videos, an ongoing eLetter-Writing Campaign, a Controversial D.C. Bus Shelter Ad “AIDS is DC’s Katrina,” and an Interactive Website: www.changeAIDSobama.org

By: AIDS Healthcare Foundation

Los Angeles - June 18, 2009

On the observation of President Obama’s first 150 days in office, AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), the nation’s largest AIDS organization, is continuing its “Change AIDS Obama” campaign with the release of a new online advocacy video chastising the president for his ongoing—and baffling—silence on AIDS.   

“AHF’s latest video, ‘150 Days and Counting’ marks AHF’s disappointment with President Obama’s ongoing silence on AIDS,” said Michael Weinstein, AHF’s President. “This ad is another element in our campaign to raise awareness about the President’s steadfast aversion to addressing or even mentioning the word AIDS throughout his first six months in office. With this ad, we hope to spur President Obama to act on AIDS, and to also encourage the public at large to visit our changeAIDSobama.org website, learn more about the President’s glaring inaction on AIDS, write to the White House to demand action, and join our site to follow our pursuit of the issue.”

The ‘150 Days and Counting’ video features photos of the President with the following text slates slowly dissolving over his image:

• President Obama your silence on AIDS is deafening
• 150 days and counting
• 6,000 deaths a day
• Silence = death
• www.changeAIDSobama.org

Previous Elements of the www.changeAIDSobama,org Campaign

Previous elements in the campaign include AHF’s “AIDS is DC’s Katrina” bus shelter ads now appearing throughout Washington, D.C. The provocative ad contrasts an iconic photo of an indifferent George W. Bush looking out the window of Air Force One at the devastation and aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans with a close up photo of a seemingly homeless person’s pair of hands holding tightly onto a piece of a battered corrugated cardboard with the phrase, “AIDS is DC’s Katrina” scrawled in red across the cardboard.  This is part of AHF’s “Change AIDS Obama” campaign designed to prod President Obama to act forcefully on AIDS.  Other aspects of the campaign include several thought-provoking viral videos, an ongoing eLetter-writing campaign and an interactive website: www.changeAIDSobama.org.

“Part of the intent of the ‘Change AIDS Obama’ campaign was to remind President Obama that he need not go further than his own backyard to witness the nation’s worsening HIV/AIDS epidemic and the failure of U.S. HIV prevention efforts,” added AHF’s Weinstein. “AHF produced the print ad and companion viral video after the recent revelation that the HIV prevalence rate in Washington surged past 3%—higher than the rate found in Lagos, Nigeria.  Though the President has so far been silent on AIDS, we remain hopeful that he and his administration will be the change we can believe in on AIDS.”

The ‘150 Days and Counting’ video as well as previous items in the campaign can be viewed at: www.changeAIDSobama.org