AIDS!

I used to have this friend at school whose dad wouldn't let him go into the West End because he had heard that gangs of crazed gays were roaming Oxford Street and Tottenham Court Road injecting shoppers with AIDS. True story, swear to God.

There were also loads of people who thought you could catch AIDS from toilet seats or door handles. Kissing or shaking hands equalled AIDS! Any male teacher who looked skinny and acted camp probably had it. Honestly, those were shit scary times. Yay, the 80s!

To be honest though, I thought everyone had chilled down about things by the mid '90s. Apparently not, as this DC ad from 1994 shows...

Fair point, well made. Although, with all this talk of wildebeests being easier to take on than AIDS patients, there is the slightly disturbing suggestion that Beast Boy thinks he's come to the hospital for a fight.

Anyway...

Great ad. Fantastic AIDS ward! Everyone looks really healthy. Bit of painting and reading going on. There's even a bonny AIDS baby. Smashing!

I love that The Teen Titans have just turned up. A few minutes before this they were probably all sitting about in Titans Tower, bored. Beast Boy started prattling on about how he'd accidentally sat in some wee in a public toilet and was now likely riddled with AIDS. Nightwing and Donna Troy told him to chill out, and, (when he started freaking and turning into a panic stricken rhino), they took him to the local AIDS ward to put his mind at ease.

Didn't stop him wearing the suit with the full-length gloves though.

Ad scanned from Supergirl: Reign of Tomorrow #1, February 1994.