Morbid ad campaign doing more scaring than raising awareness

Christine Burroni

With Kim Kardashian posing dead for AIDS, a campaign backing a great cause is really a parent’s worst nightmare.

The newest AIDS campaign launched by Keep A Child Alive, a non-profit program dedicated to providing support to families affected by HIV/Aids decided the best way to promote AIDS awareness was to have celebrities pose in coffins.

I couldn’t help but cringe when I saw the headline “Kim Kardashian Poses in a Coffin for World AIDS Day” and never mind when I saw the actual picture on my AOL News feed. I have all the respect in the world for AIDS charities, but this is just sick.

I commend everyone involved in the campaign, and AIDS campaigns in general, but this is just a little too brutal. I understand the message of the campaign but this completely takes it over the top. Putting healthy people in coffins is not only morbid but appalling.

Is this the only way that people will care? If they see their favorite celebrities in coffins versus the actual people that are in coffins from HIV/AIDS? That’s how the campaign is making it seem.

The other celebrities “playing dead” in this campaign include Alicia Keys, the face of the whole campaign, Justin Timberlake, Lady Gaga, and Ryan Seacrest, who hope to get a rise out of people not only with their deadly photos (job well done), but with the end of their so-called “digital life” by not using social media until $1 million is raised.

Considering that this campaign is specifically catered to families with AIDS, did the designers of the ad forget their demographic? What parent in their right mind would want to think of their disease burdened child in a coffin? According to TheCelebCafe.com, even Kris Jenner, mother of Kim Kardashian, was horrified with the picture of her supposedly lifeless daughter. Keep in mind, Kardashian is alive and well. This whole concept is just twisted.