Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, February 24, 1995 TAG: 9502240043
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MARK MORRISON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Typically, V Magazine is something the Roanoke Valley Visitor Information Center likes to have around. Center volunteers like to give away the free publication to tourists for its restaurant guide, which lists select eateries from Wytheville to Richmond.
But this month, the February issue of the magazine was curiously absent from the visitor center.
The reason?
Turn to page 51.
It is there, under the restaurant listings starting with the Great American Chili Shop and ending with Ziggie's, where the trouble began.
The trouble has to do with a public service advertisement for AIDS and HIV testing, a subject that is not necessarily shocking by itself. However, this particularly advertisement includes a graphic, attention-grabbing photograph that the Roanoke Valley Convention & Visitors Bureau determined to be "offensive."
So, the magazine was pulled from the shelves.
Essentially, the advertisement shows the silhouetted profile of a man's naked body from just above the knees to just below the chest, with an unusual prop protruding from between his legs - a handgun.
The man is packing a pistol, so to speak.
The accompanying slogan reads: ``Find out if you're carrying a deadly weapon.''
There is no question the advertisement is effective. The question is whether it's tasteful.
Obviously, the Convention and Visitors Bureau didn't think so.
"This publication is normally used to assist visitors with restaurant information as well as current regional activities. The HIV Testing ad on page 51 [in the middle of the recommended restaurant section] was offensive for our visitors as well as our employees and volunteers who utilize this publication," wrote Martha Mackey, executive director of the Visitors Bureau, in a letter to V.
"I am requesting that you remove those issues."
Debora Wright, director of marketing for the Visitors Bureau, elaborated. She said a tourist came into the Visitor Information Center asking about restaurants in the region and a worker started going through the V Magazine listings until they came across the HIV ad.
"It was a little bit embarrassing for the visitor and our volunteer," Wright said.
So, it was decided to pull the magazine rather than risk another awkward situation. "The first impression for the visitor is our biggest concern," she explained, emphasizing that it wasn't the subject matter that bothered the Visitors Bureau.
"I think it was the actual ad itself, not what it was trying to market," she said.
Nor was the Visitors Bureau the only organization to object to the ad. The private Shenandoah Club in Roanoke also wouldn't stock the February issue, although the club objected more to the magazine's cover that showed a woman sucking on a lollipop. Also, the ad was rejected for use by the Roanoke City Health Department and Alleghany Health District, the organizations it was originally designed for.
V magazine also lost an occasional writer who objected to the ad.
The ad was created almost two years ago as a public service project by the Advertising Federation of the Roanoke Valley, a club of regional advertising people. Each year, the club designs an ad campaign for a different issue or project to benefit the community. In 1993, the club picked HIV testing.
"Our task was to make people aware that they ought to be tested if they're at risk," explained Chuck Repede, who designed the HIV ad for the club. He said, from the beginning, he wanted an ad that would grab people's attention.
"I was purposely trying to go for shock value."
Although the health department rejected the ad, it did use a less objectionable ad also created by the club.
Eventually, the only place the deadly weapon photograph was used publicly was on a set of posters distributed at bars and college campuses by the Roanoke AIDS Project. The posters were popular, Repede said. "I knew we were onto something when people were stealing them to put into their dorm rooms."
Repede noted that the ad won several national advertising distinctions, and although he agreed the ad is somewhat graphic, he argued that it is no worse than what can be found on television or in the latest Calvin Klein magazine ad.
At the same time, he said he wasn't surprised there were objections. In fact, he was surprised V, which had the ad for more than a year, finally published it at all.
The magazine's publisher, Jim Cubby, said he would have run the ad sooner, but didn't have space for it. Plus, he thought it fit nicely into the February Valentine's issue. "I just didn't think it would shock anyone," he said.
V is a free publication generally aimed at college students and other younger, less conservative readers. Cubby said the ad likely will not run in future issues, and the Visitors Information Center has informed him that the magazine is welcome back next month as long as it doesn't include the ad.
The March issue hits the streets today.
Cubby said this doesn't mean V will stop promoting HIV testing.
"This is a subject people can't ignore."
by CNB