
A men’s magazine hopes to end the social stigma surrounding HIV by printing with ink made from HIV-positive blood.
A new campaign from the German men’s magazine Vangardist and the advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi has printed some copies of the magazine’s spring issue with ink infused with HIV-positive blood. The issue has been mailed to subscribers and will be available on newsstands and online starting next week.
The ink was created using blood from three HIV-positive donors and in accordance with strict safety controls so that the magazine carried no risk of infection, according to the agency. Some 3,000 copies were printed with blood-infused ink; 15,000 more will be printed conventionally.
“Using provocative and innovative methods of reducing stigma is one of the few ways to attract an audience you normally wouldn’t attract,” Scott McPherson, a founder of the Stigma Project, an HIV awareness group, told The Huffington Post in an email. “What’s the risk of someone contracting HIV by picking up a magazine [whose] ink is infused with HIV+ blood? None. And now … more people will learn this information and hopefully apply it to their everyday lives. We’re all in this together, reducing stigma one conversation at a time.”