This chapter examines the large-scale promotion of the condom in the US, UK and Australian mass media from the mid- to late 1980s, focusing on AIDS representations on television and in popular advertisements. It pays particular attention to the Australian ‘Grim Reaper’ advertisement, together with audience research studies on this national AIDS awareness campaign, and, in so doing, seeks to highlight the ways in which the condom has come to define national identity, sexual citizenship, and the production and recognition of difference.

This chapter examines the large-scale promotion of the condom in the US, UK and Australian mass media from the mid- to late 1980s, focusing on AIDS representations on television and in popular advertisements. It pays particular attention to the Australian ‘Grim Reaper’ advertisement, together with audience research studies on this national AIDS awareness campaign, and, in so doing, seeks to highlight the ways in which the condom has come to define national identity, sexual citizenship, and the production and recognition of difference.