Designers against AIDS
Non-profit organization ‘Beauty Without Irony’ has launched the international project ‘Designers Against AIDS’ (DAA) in 2004 in order to raise AIDS awareness in the international media and towards the general public, more specifically towards young people in the industrialised countries using elements from pop culture (music, fashion, design, arts, sports, film, celebrities, etc).
Website
The most important tool for DAA is the website that is shown on the logo that’s printed on every item, in press releases and publications and that constitutes a platform with links to local AIDS organizations. This way, visitors can learn how to protect themselves – and how to help others who are less fortunate than they are. If they look for this info actively on their own computer, maybe they will remember/understand it better than when surrounded by others in a classroom, as this can be very distracting for some. Currently the informative pages are available in several languages, with more coming up.
The DAA logo that is part of every item, features our website url, enabling people to find recent information on HIV/AIDS. We also take part in events, exhibitions, fairs and festivities and collaborate with interested artists, organisations and brands – drawing more attention to the cause as we go.
How does DAA work?
AIDS awareness project Designers Against AIDS -born in Belgium, but active all over the world- wants to reach out to young people by using their favorite celebrities from the worlds of music, fashion, sports and art to raise their interest and curiosity, making them visit the website http://www.designersagainstaids.com, click on the links to local AIDS organizations and learn more about HIV/AIDS. The main objective of Designers against AIDS is to raise awareness and to get the subject of HIV/AIDS back into the media all over the world, as lately it has become a forgotten disease, especially in the western world. Our messages are: ‘Prevention is the only cure for HIV/AIDS‘ (Protect yourself and your partner) and ‘Know your status’ (Get tested). Furthermore we fight for the acceptance of and equal rights for seropositive people.
Media
Continuing with new international collections and projects presented ever since the start, DAA has reached a vast amount of press in lifestyle TV programs, daily newspapers, glossy magazines, blogs and different spaces in media, mainly focused to a young audience. Media who have reported about DAA include i-D, Vogue, Interview, Elle, International Herald Tribune, Zoo Magazine, De Morgen, Weekend-Knack, De Tijd, El Pais, El Mundo, Citizen K, Marie-Claire, Vanity Fair, Madame Figaro, Libération, New York Post, Le Monde, Cosmopolitan, MTV, TMF, JIM TV, Studio Brussels, Interview, Canal +, Fashion TV, Vogue TV France…
