The image generated an enormous fur

The image generated an enormous furore: in Germany it was taken to court; in France billstickers refused to post it; and, in Britain, The Guardian (the first newspaper to run it as a full-page ad) was inundated with letters of complaint. The poignancy of the picture was indisputable, but whether a global company had the moral right to use it for selling fashion knitwear was another matter. The gay community, constituting then the visible majority of those suffering from AIDS, were not unanimously against the image. Some saw it, as Toscani himself did, as fighting against the exclusion of AIDS victims.2 Their concerns were with homophobia and gay rights. Others, however, regarded it as a gross example of how worldwide capitalism had no hesitation in intruding into the most private spheres of human life in order to sell meaningless consumer goods.