In Australia in 2011 alone, there were 994 men with HIV and 142 women with HIV. While those numbers aren’t incredibly high, that's still a hell of a lot of valuable human lives afflicted with this ridiculously unfortunate disease, and that’s a problem – plus those numbers are a drop in the bucket compared to numbers infected worldwide. Since HIV/AIDS can so easily be prevented from spreading, the AIDS Council of New South Wales came up with a pretty eye-catching idea: they put a gargantuan pink condom on a huge statue. Specifically, a 157-year-old Obelisk in the center of town in Sydney where there is a lot of traffic.
Not only is there a monumental pink statue dressed up as a condom, but penis-sized condom goodie bags are being given out for free as well. ACON’s goal? Get rid of HIV/AIDS completely. The CEO of the organization, Nicolas Parkhill stated, “The need for gay men to "stay safe" by using condoms is at the core of NSW’s strategy for eliminating HIV transmission by the end of the decade.”
Of course, the monstrous pink condom is not just intended for gay men — if I were to see something that pink and that phallic and that big, I would probably be more likely to ask that my partner use a condom, too. Maybe we all just need something a little loud, and little playful for the idea to stick (ew, pun, sorry). So, hooray safe sex! Safe sex ALL around!
As a side note, I do wish something like this would be a permanent fixture on college campuses in America. Because while HIV/AIDS is tremendously devastating, so many large campuses are breeding grounds for other STDs as well. Because you crazy kids are just not using protection and spreading awful viruses into each other's bodies. Cut it out. Use a condom. Condoms are cool. Why? Because diseases aren’t. Okay? Okay.
Images: Wikipedia
