Retrospective on Australia’s Longest-Running Sexual Health Campaign

The Victorian AIDS Council (VAC) is hosting a retrospective exhibition to look back at
the country’s longest continuously running sexual health campaign - The Drama Downunder. With over
8 years of arresting imagery and sexual health messaging, this exhibition will look at the more iconic
iterations and images, in addition to versions that were never publicly released. The exhibition will also
include a first-look at the campaigns newest series.
Commissioned by the Australian Federation of AIDS Organisations (AFAO), the Drama Downunder was
developed by VAC to remove the embarrassment and shame associated with discussing sexual health and
make the dialogue about looking after one’s sexual health and wellbeing more accessible by employing a
humorous, shame free approach. The campaign was the first implemented by VAC in mainstream outdoor
and transport media. As a result, the campaign has received unprecedented brand recognition amongst
its target audience of sexually active gay men, but Drama Downunder has exceeded expectations in who
it reached.
“The model we chose was a VAC volunteer who had a look that we thought was warm and approachable,”
said VAC’s Director, Health Promotion, Policy and Communications Colin Batrouney, “so much so that upon
evaluation we found that gay men who saw the campaign assumed he was gay and straight focus groups
assumed he was straight, making it the first sexual health campaign to achieve crossover appeal.”
“We’re incredibly proud of the success of the campaign these past eight years and it will be exciting to
see the newest iterations during this upcoming exhibition,” said VAC President Greg Carter. “We hope this
latest series of images premiering at the exhibition continues to build on that success and causes more of
us to discuss sexual health openly and act to ensure we look after ourselves.”
The Drama Dowunder Retrospective Exhibition opens at the OKLA Gallery (15-35 Keele Street, Collingwood)
on Wednesday 26 August for a VAC Members-only event before being open to the public from Thursday 27
August until Monday 31 August. For more details, head to: www.vac.org.au/DDUretro