HIV Vaccine Trials Unit : Take Action

Pro bono newspaper ads and posters for the Seattle chapter of the HIV Vaccine Trials Unit are intended to "incite people to 'complete the picture' by participating in the development of an HIV vaccine that, if perfected, could one day wipe out HIV," says DraftFCB ECD Mary Knight. (The copy, she notes, makes the key point that you can't get HIV by participating in the study.) "The work features people from all walks of life who have come together to form an object like a hammer or a spray can, determined to wipe out the HIV bug but the dotted lines show that more people are needed to destroy the virus." The participants, incidentally, were not assembled after the fact. "We shot from a crane and choreographed them on the ground," says senior AD Brad Dundas. "The bug, the dotted lines, the backgrounds and color work were the focus of the retouching."