For my blog post I decided to look at body modification and AIDS/HIV Awareness. Mainly I looked at body modifications in the sense of fashion, in particular Lady Gaga and her MAC Viva Glam Campaign. The MAC Viva Glam campaign is a unique outreach and awareness program created by MAC make-up company founders Frank Angelo and Frank Toskan. While the message they spread about HIV/AIDS awareness is not particularly unique or groundbreaking, the mode of campaign is particularly interesting. MAC AIDS Foundation hires celebrities to be the face of each new Viva Glam campaign, beginning with RuPaul, a famous drag queen. The Foundation was groundbreaking in that it was one of the first organizations to donate 100% of the proceeds from the campaign to men, women, and children affected by AIDS. The MAC Aids Foundation (MAF) sells MAC lipstick and uses the proceeds to pay for female and male condoms, transportation for AIDS patients to and from doctor appointments, school supplies and clothes for children orphaned by AIDS, HIV tests, sessions with dietitians, safer sex kits, HIV prevention work-shops, counseling sessions, and many other donations.

I found their program interesting and relevant for two reasons: One, because their targeted audience is women and two, because of the campaign methods.

The MAC campaign combines body modification and AIDS Awareness beautifully because they are selling body modifying tools to women in order to raise money for their cause. Consumerism and charity has always felt fairly odd to me. The whole concept of consumerism leaves a sort of dirty taste in my mouth, like I’m some sort of mindless zombie buying without thought. Going shopping also is somewhat of a guilty pleasure. So when I’m put into these situations it feels somewhat detached. However MAC along with countless other organizations play upon our consumerist ideals to raise funds for these charities.

In the poster presentation on AIDS/HIV on Thursday the group talked about the misconception that this disease mainly affected gay males, and ignored the 50% of AIDS population that are women. I found this campaign interesting because by selling make-up it was appealing to a more female based audience, one that is often ignored in awareness efforts. Although the commercial aspect bothered me, I applaud the campaign’s movement to a female awareness along with female based aid for those with the disease.

The Viva Glam campaigns began fairly provocative, starting with the first drag queen supermodel RuPaul spelling out Viva Glam with various poses. The campaigns continued along this trend that reminded me of the PeTA ads that we saw on Tuesday. The ads were interesting to me because they did not seem to promote any awareness to the issue at hand, but were simply advertising the make-up. It was not until the current campaign, that it took a more serious tone with Lady Gaga and Cyndi Lauper teaming up to promote the movement. Recently Lady Gaga was interviewed for the organization by Good Morning America, in which she wore a completely latex outfit, which she stated represented the awareness of HIV people all over the world need to have. It is an interesting combination of public relations, fashion, artistic expression, and public awareness. The current campaign has been wildly successful so it is clear that MAC and Gaga are doing something right.

Lady Gaga's Interview with GMA

MAC AIDS Fund