KENNETH COLE, who sometimes pushes the boundaries of good taste in his pun-laden, socially conscious advertising, will introduce a public service campaign tied to World AIDS Day today. It is one he anticipates will elicit more attention, and probably controversy, than any of his prior statements.
The message of Mr. Cole's latest campaign, emblazoned on $35 T-shirts, which will benefit AIDS charities and will be carried at Barneys New York, Scoop, Louis Boston and other stores, is "We All Have AIDS." Some of the T-shirts are more provocative, stating bluntly, "I Have AIDS."
Mr. Cole said he hopes people, infected or not, will wear them as a gesture to diminish the stigma associated with the disease by subverting the notion that AIDS affects only those infected with the H.I.V. virus.
"There is a legend of the Danish king, Christian X, who, during World War II, when Hitler insisted all Jews publicly wear a yellow Star of David, would wear the star himself, hence making it difficult to differentiate who was Jewish," Mr. Cole said in an interview. "This is kind of like that, hopefully."
Some people might be shocked, he said, but he did not expect serious objections. "It's very hard to argue against the message that we all have AIDS," Mr. Cole said. "It's not hard to make the case that we all have been affected, both culturally and spiritually."
In a series of images put together over the last year Mr. Cole assembled a roster of celebrities, including Julianne Moore, Natasha Richardson and Richard Gere, who were photographed either barefoot, recalling Mr. Cole's AIDS awareness campaign of 1985, which included similarly posed supermodels, or wearing one of the shirts. But none of those who participated, with the exception of Zackie Achmat, a South African activist who has AIDS, would wear the first-person version.
"People were not jumping at it, which speaks to the stigma of AIDS," said Mr. Cole, who is also chairman of Amfar, the foundation for AIDS research. "Even in this country, where we think we are beyond this, I ask the question, 'Are we really?' "
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What I do is kick them in the pants with a diamond buckled shoe!
~~Aileen Mehle~~
