At the 17th International AIDS conference, held in the City of Mexico, a ‘planting and eating soybean’ project has been debated for people infected with HIV in rural Anhui, a province located in southeastern China, “situational analysis and client satisfaction evaluation of A.R.T. centers in India,” as well as “coordinating procurement planning using logistics data.”

Among the scientists, advocates dressed in condom costumes and T-shirts that asked “Got AIDS?” were present at the conference.

Due to the alarming number of HIV/AIDS cases worldwide, the activists knew that, in order to teach people about the pandemic, they should come up with extremely ingenious ideas. In an attempt to do this, they made posters showing flying superheroes in shape of condoms and huge insects, signifying the AIDS virus, having sex with unsuspicious victims.

“If I were H.I.V. positive...” is the name of an advertising campaign created by AIDES, a French company that previously commissioned two safe sex posters with the theme "Explore. Just Protect Yourself" which won a bronze medal at Cannes. For a period of two years, AIDES has made posters and postcards and created stunning advertisements to raise AIDS awareness. One of them shows a man in bed with a scorpion, suggesting a similarity between the animal’s lethal venom and the HIV virus; there isn’t a vaccine for any of the casualties.

“If I were H.I.V. positive, would you let me be your doctor?” says one poster bearing the portrait of Dr. Pedro Cahn, former president of the International AIDS Society, the world’s leading independent association of HIV professionals.

Among the myriad of ads, another one showed a blonde woman asking “If I were H.I.V. positive, would you invite me to your home?” The photo was of Her Royal Highness Crown Princess Mette-Marit of Norway.