Advertisers Shun AIDS Program : Television: The producer of ‘Understanding HIV,’ which airs today on KABC-TV, says companies are afraid of boycotts and negative campaigns from right-wing groups.
The producer of a syndicated AIDS special aimed at teen-agers says the program stands to lose at least $100,000, in part because advertisers are afraid to associate themselves with the subject.
“Understanding HIV: Does Teen America Know the Facts?,” which airs at noon today on KABC-TV Channel 7, cost $200,000 to make but has only generated $75,000 to $100,000 in ads, said Bob Horowitz, president of the Marin County-based production company GGP, which made and distributed the program.
Horowitz said that while many advertisers turned them down originally on the grounds of budget restraints, most firms approached as part of a last-minute plea this week said they did not want to be associated with the program because of its content.
In particular, Horowitz said, companies said that they feared boycotts and negative campaigns from right-wing groups, which might protest in the belief that advertising on a program about AIDS means support for homosexuals or promiscuous sex.
“When we went to the well to try to dig down deep and try to pull out some advertisers, all of a sudden there it was--concern over advocacy groups and getting letters from people,” he said. “It’s bad. It’s terrible.”
In the end, Horowitz said, the company sold spots to pharmaceutical company SmithKline Beecham, brokerage Charles Schwab & Co., Sundance Sparkler manufacturer Everfresh Inc. and food company Chef America.
But none of those companies paid the $20,000 that GGP was hoping to sell its 30-second spots for, and some paid as little as $3,000, Horowitz said.
Additional spots will air on behalf of an AIDS awareness video produced by Kiki Vandeweghe of the New York Knicks, but GGP will only be paid if the ads generate sales of the video.
Some of the companies that would not buy ads said they supported the program’s goal of disseminating information about AIDS, but were holding back because they had not yet produced ads whose tone was appropriate for a special about AIDS.
Horowitz said that he was skeptical of such arguments, noting that SmithKline Beecham, faced with that problem, simply asked GGP to produce an appropriate ad for it.
The ad, copy for which was written by SmithKline Beecham, is very simple. It shows the logo for the company’s Oxy acne medicine product line and features an announcer saying, “These days you need to learn in order to live. That’s why Oxy is a proud sponsor of ‘Understanding HIV.’ ”
“Teens are our market,” said Maurice Kelley, vice president for public affairs of SmithKline Beecham. “And we thought this represented a good way for teens to learn the facts about a very serious disease.”
Kelley said the company was careful not to take a “crass, commercial” approach in its ads for the show, and that SmithKline Beecham was not worried about boycotts or protests.
“There are some right-wing groups or pressure groups . . . and we hear from them from time to time, but we have our own standards and we feel comfortable with them,” Kelley said.
Horowitz said that additional revenue may also come from sales of videocassettes of “Understanding HIV.” The tapes will be sold on the program today, and will also be distributed to schools and other educational institutions, and $1 from each sale will be donated to AIDS organizations.
“Understanding HIV” is not the first program about AIDS to suffer from HIV-jitters on the part of advertisers. Last month, ABC produced a star-studded, prime-time special on the disease that barely broke even.
