From grim to glam

In 1987 the Department of Health released the Grim Reaper advertising campaign to educate Australians about HIV and AIDS. The hard-hitting campaign shocked Australian audiences and became one of the most talked about advertisements in television history.
To commemorate the 20th anniversary of the successful commercials, ACON has turned the scary Grim Reaper character into a high-camp, high-fun Glam Reaper.
The Glam Reaper, played by Sydney drag favourite Mitzi Macintosh, is backed up by a host of community archetypes, including Party Boy, Mr Leather, Asian Femme, DJ, Mz Butch, Miss Lippy, Mr Bear and Twinky.
John Stanton, who did the original voice-over on the Grim Reaper commercials, has returned to become the voice of the new campaign.
The video commercial will be launched in the coming days on the Glam Reaper website, www.theglamreaper.com.
Community members have been encouraged to log onto the site, become a friend and post comments.
Campaign coordinator Ben Tart said ACON wanted to play with the iconic imagery of the Grim Reaper while still presenting an important message to the community.
We wanted to really take ownership of the Grim Reaper for our community and remind the community that HIV is still such a big issue for all of us, he said.
It is so important to protect ourselves, our partners and our community by continuing to use condoms.