(1991) Red Hot + Dance, Steven Meisel, Safe Sex Is Hot Sex (“You Are Not Immune / No Somos Inmunes”) Poster, Red Hot Organization, United States, 1991–1992
(1991) Red Hot + Dance, Steven Meisel, Safe Sex Is Hot Sex (“You Are Not Immune / No Somos Inmunes”) Poster, Red Hot Organization, United States, 1991–1992
Description
Steven Meisel, Safe Sex Is Hot Sex (“You Are Not Immune / No Somos Inmunes”), 1991
HIV prevention campaign poster
Designer/Photographer: Steven Meisel
Publisher: Red Hot Organization
Country: United States
Offset print poster
This version of the Safe Sex Is Hot Sex campaign poster features a nude black male couple in an intimate embrace set against a neutral studio background. The headline “safe sex” appears in large red type at the top, while “is hot sex” anchors the bottom. Along the vertical margins, the phrase “YOU ARE NOT IMMUNE / NO SOMOS INMUNES!” reinforces the campaign’s central public health message. The Red Hot Organization logo appears in the upper right corner.
Produced in connection with the Red Hot Organization’s early 1990s HIV/AIDS initiatives, the campaign coincided with the release of Red Hot + Blue (1990), a widely distributed Cole Porter tribute album featuring major popular musicians. Red Hot used popular culture, fashion photography, and celebrity networks to expand HIV prevention messaging beyond activist circles and into mainstream media environments.
This poster documents a moment when HIV prevention messaging increasingly intersected with global media culture, contrasting with more confrontational street-based activist graphics of the same period. It forms part of the broader historical record of sex-positive public health campaigns in the early 1990s.
