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As befits a commercial of the sobering-statistics school, “Forty Percent” opens with a black screen. We hear the opening bars of an upbeat-yet-feelingful rock tune, and this text appears: “40 percent of people who know they are H.I.V. positive do not tell their partners. Other than abstinence there is only one way to protect yourself. Use a condom every time.”
The black screen gives way to an image of a young couple strolling in slow motions through an urban vista. They're dressed for a date: She's in a glam little sweater and high boots, English-major curls tumbling around her face; he wears a pinstriped jacket over holey jeans, an artsy guy but clearly not broke. In a gesture of modern chivalry, he hands her a white earbud from the iPod he's carrying. As she listens, a smile of surpassing sweetness and sexiness spreads over her face. She gazes up at him, all cheekbones and auburn hair, a younger, randier Cate Blanchett. Their fingers intertwine against the backdrop of their crotches. The Trojan logo appears, and a voice-over tells us: “Pleasure you want. Protection you trust.”
It's a 30-second spot, but I swear by the time the thing was over, my husband was ready to run off to Paris with the female half of the couple, their suitcases filled with iPods and condoms. “It's so romantic!” he said. […]
Except that “Forty Percent” isn't romantic, really. When you think about the adorable couple within the framework of the statistical prologue, things turn dark. If 40 percent of people with H.I.V. don't tell their partners, which of these two cute daters is positive? Which one isn't telling? Or are they both negative, protecting themselves against each other like characters in a modern-day O. Henry story? All this confusion comes from the fact that the AIDS-awareness message is, God forgive me, a Trojan horse. The commercial gives us text telling us to worry about H.I.V., and images telling us to go have sex right now. And in television, image trumps word. The ad's real message is “Buy more condoms!”