Controversy
The commercial became controversial for offending some members of the gay community. Australian AIDS pioneer Ron Penny regreted the fact this occurred:
The downside was that the Grim Reaper became identified with gay men rather than as the Reaper. That was what we had unintentionally produced - by some that the Reaper was people with HIV infection, rather than the Reaper harvesting the dead.
I think there's never been anything on television or any media that has ever matched it in terms of impact, but no advertising can be without some downside, and that was never intended. But it at least made people aware and probably did change sexual practices of heterosexuals.
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