AIDS Announcement September 27, 1988
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Remarks
By
C. Everett Koop, MD, ScD
Surgeon General
Of the
US. Public Health Service
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

Presented in a Press Conference
Announcing the Advertising Council’s New Campaign on AIDS
And the Importance of Using a Condom
New York City, New York
September 27, 1988

 

It was 14 days since I had last spoken in public on the AIDS epidemic.

All but the first page of my remarks on this occasion have been lost, but Ruth Wooden,
President of the Advertising Council of New York City, and I, were co-chairs or co-hosts
at this press conference announcing the Advertising Council’s new campaign and the
importance of using a condom when having sex. This was a pro-bono effort on their part,
and much appreciated by the United States Public Health Service.

I started off by saying that I wished we didn’t have to be there, and how truly unfortunate
is was, that in spite of all of the information being made available to the American
people, in recent months, we still had to launch a massive public service campaign about
protection against HIV.

This never became the campaign that we had hoped it would be because of the natural
reticence of people to advertise condoms, and the disinclination of people to read
advertisements about condoms.