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There's only one pullover this photograph should be allowed to sell

Poster
1992 (printed and published)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

The poster, designed to promote 'safe sex', is part of a campaign to encourage the use of condoms to reduce the risks of sexually transmitted infection and disease. It was produced by ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power), an organisation dedicated to promoting AIDS awareness, and the source of many similarly thought-provoking poster campaigns.

This poster is openly critical of the Benetton clothing company's advertising campaign, which used a 1990 photograph by Therese Frare showing AIDS activist David Kirby on his deathbed. The ACT UP poster states that such an image should be used not in the cause of selling jumpers, but in aid of promoting a another kind of 'pullover'--the condom.

Object details

Categories
Object type
TitleThere's only one pullover this photograph should be allowed to sell (assigned by artist)
Materials and techniques
Offset lithography
Brief description
Poster by Andrew Dibb issued by ACT-UP (Aids Coalition to Unleash Power), 'There's only on pullover this photograph should be allowed to sell', offset lithograph, Great Britain, 1992
Physical description
The poster incorporates and questions the ethics of a Benetton (Italian clothing company) advertisement which appropriates a photograph of AIDS activist David Kirby on his death bed.
Dimensions
  • Width: 23.3cm
  • Height: 31.6cm
Marks and inscriptions
  • There's only one pullover/ this photograph/ should be used to sell. (Inscription; decoration; English; centre; 1992)
  • SILENCE = DEATH. ACT UP. (Textual information; English; lower centre; 1992)
Credit line
Given by Shaun Cole
Subjects depicted
Summary
The poster, designed to promote 'safe sex', is part of a campaign to encourage the use of condoms to reduce the risks of sexually transmitted infection and disease. It was produced by ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power), an organisation dedicated to promoting AIDS awareness, and the source of many similarly thought-provoking poster campaigns.

This poster is openly critical of the Benetton clothing company's advertising campaign, which used a 1990 photograph by Therese Frare showing AIDS activist David Kirby on his deathbed. The ACT UP poster states that such an image should be used not in the cause of selling jumpers, but in aid of promoting a another kind of 'pullover'--the condom.
Associated object
e.924-1996 (Original)
Bibliographic reference
Victoria and Albert Museum Department of Prints, Drawings and Paintings Accession Register for 1992
Collection
Accession number
E.1905-1992

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Record createdFebruary 5, 2004
Record URL
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