The Culture of AIDS

INTERVIEW

Facing Health

In the Life’s Andrea Swift Gives Chael Needle a Sneak Peek at the Show’s Coverage of HIV/AIDS Drug Ads

In the Life, a nationally syndicated newsmagazine series that covers GLBT issues and culture, investigates the limitations and possibilities of pharmaceutical advertising for HIV/AIDS medications in June as the anchor segment of "The Body Politic," an edition of the show that will look at health and fitness, athletic, body, and mental health issues. (Log onto www.inthelifetv.org or check your local PBS listings for air dates.) In the Life is produced by the not-for-profit In the Life Media, Inc., an "educational organization dedicated to presenting positive visibility and accurate information about the gay and lesbian community," and has been going strong since 1992. Recently, In the Life received a grant from Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS in support of AIDS awareness reporting.

Produced by Dan Karslake and guest-hosted by John Bartlett, this segment–called "Body Positive"–is the latest in the show’s ongoing coverage of AIDS issues. "The segment came from a desire to look at the nexus of medical and commercial interests vis-a-vis HIV medications," says Andrea Swift, executive producer of In the Life. Swift says the segment will engage in the wider, ongoing conversation by presenting interviews with people with different perspectives on this intersection of "economy and science." The complexity of the issue is addressed, for example, in a conversation with models at Proof Positive, an agency that represents HIV-positive clients. On the one hand, says Swift, the agency has provided employment for HIVers. Then it gets complicated, she says, "when these people who are very healthy become the only face of AIDS. We’re hearing from other people who think that it’s an inaccurate–or even possibly damaging–way to represent the disease. And that people will perhaps not think that [contracting HIV] is such a bad thing to happen to them anymore." Another perspective, however, argues that the advertisers’ images represent the possibility that contracting HIV in the developed world is not a death sentence the way it usually was in the first decade and that people living with HIV/AIDS can lead a full, healthy life. When talking with the Proof Positive models, the producers discovered that many of them saw their work "not only as a way of making a living but as activism," says Swift. "And not only that it was a passively good thing for there to be healthy-looking people in HIV/AIDS drug ads, but that it was in fact a very active and critical role for them to play in their community."

One thread of the segment takes up the costs of pharmaceutical advertising. "Though advertising is to some extent providing that [healthy-looking] representation, it adds a certain amount of cost to the drugs; and how much is that cost? There are perceptions that that cost is a big portion of what’s making the medications so expensive," notes Swift, who adds that others claim that advertising budgets for HIV/AIDS drugs are comparably lower than other products and not over-inflating the drug costs. Figuring out exactly how much is spent on research compared to marketing proved to be a challenge, however, for the segment’s associate producer, Jesse Solomon. "We got corporate reports from several pharmaceutical companies and I don’t believe there were any of them that listed their marketing costs separately," says Swift, at least not in a way that advertising could be singled out.

"We’ve come up with a lot more questions and possibilities than we have with absolutely definitive answers," says Swift, but adds that those who worked on the segment were "surprised at what a tremendous sense of community is still there. As the various activists talked about their concerns it was clear that, while their conversations may have become quieter and in some ways more complex, there’s just as lively and committed a community now as there was when groups like ACT UP were far more visible. I don’t think the broader culture is necessarily always aware of that. That was a nice thing to see."

The "state of AIDS" conversation is also touched on in another of the show’s segment on Simon and I, a movie about two leading gay, and then AIDS, activists in South Africa, and will continue in future shows that will look at the new entry inhibitor Fuzeon as well as interviews with leaders in AIDS research.

Chael Needle wrote about the Red Hot Organization in the January issue.