HIV/AIDS LONG-TERM SURVIVOR * YOUTH EDUCATION * ADVOCACY * ACTIVISM * RESOURCES
"What if it Were You?" is a community HIV/AIDS awareness campaign and youth AIDS poster contest dedicated to promoting every-day awareness, compassion, education and support for HIV/AIDS. Not only are we providing AIDS awareness and education to youth in our schools, but we also strive diligently to reduce the social stigmas of HIV/AIDS, while addressing some core issues in the fight against AIDS. Some of the issues we address that drive the epidemic are, racism, homophobia, poverty, domestic violence and addiction. It is important that youth, and adults for that matter, understand the correlation between these issues and HIV/AIDS.
Thank you for your time, support, and compassion!
"Compassion is our cure."
~Bob Bowers-Founder and President of HIVictorious, Inc.
Dear Friends,
Bob Bowers' work in Madison high schools to raise awareness about HIV has been very important to our community. Bob puts a human face on the issue and he inspires all of us to think about how this challenge can be overcome, not how it might overcome us. And I have no doubt that by raising awareness he has saved lives. I'm so impressed with this work that I proudly hang the winners of his annual What if it were you? poster contest in my office to remind me of this issue every day.
Madison, Wisconsin Mayor
Dave Cieslewicz
In 2007, I launched an initiative that would leave an indelible mark on the fight against HIV/AIDS—a youth HIV/AIDS awareness poster contest called "What if it Were You?" Created during my time in Madison, Wisconsin, this project wasn’t just about awareness. It was about compassion, empathy, and breaking down the barriers of stigma and prejudice.
The contest was a part of HIVictorious, Inc., the nonprofit I founded in 2004. Entirely volunteer-run and supported by donations, HIVictorious embodied a decade of relentless dedication to HIV/AIDS advocacy. While the work was fulfilling, it also came with its share of challenges, and in time, I had to step back for the sake of my well-being. But the impact of the work remains, and "What if it Were You?" continues to resonate around the world.
The concept behind the contest was simple yet profound: high school students were challenged to answer the question, "What if YOU were HIV positive?" through art and words. I encouraged them to think deeply about the realities of living with HIV/AIDS, reminding them that, yes, it could happen to anyone. The results were beyond anything I could have imagined. These young minds poured their hearts into their creations, producing art and messages that were raw, powerful, and unforgettable.
Winning entries received more than just recognition. Posters were displayed prominently on billboards, in shopping malls, and across other public spaces. Winners met with key leaders, including Wisconsin's Governor Jim Doyle, Madison’s Mayor Dave Cieslewicz, and Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin (now a U.S. Senator). These young artists had the unique opportunity to present their posters to these officials, leaving a lasting impression. Some posters even adorned office walls for years, silently continuing their mission of awareness and compassion.
Over time, the posters found their way into places I never dreamed of—displayed at Macy’s stores for World AIDS Day, featured in college textbooks, showcased on HBO’s Hung, and even shared globally. What makes me most proud, though, is knowing these posters have been used to educate, challenge prejudice, and inspire hope. I never made a dime from them; instead, my reward was the pride of witnessing their impact. "What if it Were You?" reminds us that HIV/AIDS is not just a statistic or a headline. It’s a human story. It’s about real lives affected by stigma, ignorance, and fear. This campaign gave a voice to those stories through the fresh perspectives of youth, emphasizing the universal truth that none of us are immune. Their work dared to fight prejudice, teach understanding, and call for compassion.
I’ll never forget the student who created a striking image of a blindfolded individual with the message: "I would FIGHT to make the world BLIND to prejudice." Or the student who envisioned a lightbulb, symbolic of awareness, with the words: "I would teach the world to understand." Their art became more than just posters; they became catalysts for change.
As I look back on the journey of HIVictorious, Inc. and the "What if it Were You?" campaign, I’m reminded of the power of youth, art, and storytelling. These posters weren’t just a project—they were a movement. A movement to ensure no one feels alone, no one feels forgotten, and no one feels defined solely by their diagnosis.
And so, I ask you: What if it were you?
~ Bob Bowers
Mr. Bowers,
I truly admire your courage to tell your story. You told us what the facts were and unlike many people in our society today you didn't say "Don't do it"; you just told us to be smart about it. I don't think there was even a sentence that could describe the feeling I had during your talk. I thought you were a very strong person. I don't think I would have been able to get up and talk to 200 students, let alone survive for 23 years. You have learned to cherish everything and take nothing for granted. Everything that came out of your mouth was inspirational and meaningful. You truly touched me. If people had one tenth of the strength and ambition you have, I know our world would be a better place. I wish you would have been able to stay with us long because it was such a moving discussion.
Stay Strong,
Carrie Beth
“What If It Were You” asks a simple and direct question.
This worthy campaign, spearheaded by the compassionate advocates at HIVictorious and generously supported by many local businesses, asks an honest question to every individual. What would you do if you found out you were living with HIV? What will you do when confronted with the risk of contracting HIV through unprotected sex or drug use? HIV/AIDS affects everyone. Reminding all of Wisconsin that they may be at risk for this horrible virus, especially youth, tackles the ignorance and apathy that is much too pervasive within Wisconsin and its younger residents. The poster campaign involves young people, inspiring them to foster awareness and fight the indifference and stigma that cripples our fight against AIDS. “What if it Were You?” takes the battle to our schools, where prevention education and the struggle against ignorance should be more prevalent. AIDS Network is excited about this thoughtful and important awareness campaign. As more and more people throughout Wisconsin test positive for HIV every year, “What If It Were You?” asks the candid and critical question.
~Dan Guinn
What if it Were You? is a poster contest designed to inspire youth to cultivate and communicate a more truthful, and inclusive perception of HIV/AIDS, promote prevention and compassion and aid the eradication of youth misconceptions and apathy.
What if it Were You? aims to compel youth to recognize and renounce stereotypes and stigma, and dispel misguided beliefs about not being at risk.
The contest is intended to empower youth to discover and define their own interpretation of the significance of HIV/AIDS and design a poster using words &/or images to portray their point of view and deliver an HIV prevention message that will be effectively received by their peers.
Allowing youth a voice and a means to convey their message will undoubtedly result in communication methods most likely to command the attention of and have the utmost influence on their peers..
Power Surge
by Bob Ickes
Collin Burke, a high school senior from Madison, Wisconsin, says he took art class “by accident.” The teacher soon had Burke and his classmates entering the “What If It Were You?” AIDS-poster contest. “We had to demonstrate ‘What would you do if you found you had AIDS,’ ” says Burke, 18. “My poster expresses that I would try to make the world understand the facts. You know, like a lightbulb going on.” He took first place out of 100 competitors; the poster (left) will decorate buses, hair salons and diners throughout Madison. Says AIDS activist Bob Bowers, who sponsors the program through HIVictorious.org, “We picked Collin’s poster and thought we knew everything about him—until he was interviewed by the media and we found out that his uncle died of AIDS before he was born.” Says Burke: “I wish I had known him.”
“What if it were you?” That’s the question Madison, Wisconsin-based HIVictorious, Inc., has been posing to area high school students as part of a poster contest and campaign. Now entering its fourth round, the poster contest asks youth to imagine how they might feel if they discovered that they were HIV-positive and to respond through words and art. The entries are judged and winners are awarded with recognition from public officials and gift cards, but the real prize is the opportunity for youth to promote AIDS awareness, compassion, education, and support in their communities.
What If It Were You? is the brainchild of Bob Bowers, founder and president of HIVictorious, who has been speaking to ninth-grade health classes, among other sites, in Madison for the past six years. At the start, he was honing his own sense of empowerment as a person living with HIV/AIDS and learning more about the demographics of the disease. However, the spiking rates among men who have sex with men and among African Americans, in particular, motivated him to fine-tune his curriculum. “I was blown away and I had thought to myself, ‘How are we going to cure AIDS if we’re still calling our brothers and sisters [pejorative names]? We haven’t dealt with racism and homophobia. I really started to appreciate and understand how stigma and people’s judgments would continue to fuel this epidemic,” he relates. During his outreach, he often “gets in students’ faces,” challenging them to reflect on the consequences of using the n-word and f-word in their everyday life.
“Also, around the same time, I was pretty overwhelmed by the lack of everyday awareness about the disease. How can we expect infection rates to be down, particularly among youth not to mention in general, when people aren’t getting the awareness, when we’re not addressing the core issues? I was outraged and disgusted.”
He asked himself how he could be part of the solution rather than part of the problem. Over the course of several talks with his wife, Teresa, about the issues of racism and homophobia as forces that contribute to the epidemic, the persistent notion that many think they will not be infected by HIV, and the ubiquity of age-old and often fear-driven prevention messages, Bob became inspired.
What if the messages were fresh and delivered by the youth themselves rather than an ASO or other agency? What if the campaign took compassion as its starting point—and its destination? Bowers knew he loved working with youth and so the poster contest and campaign seemed like a good match.
At first, he didn’t know what the students would cook up after he had prepped them with an HIV 101, shared his own experiences, and directed them to the nonprofit’s Web site for more information. “In my [public] talks, people have said to me, ‘I don’t know how you’ve lived with [the disease] for twenty-seven years, I would have killed myself; I couldn’t have done it.’ Yet these are not the messages we’re getting.”
Instead of mechanical instruction (“wear a condom”), the students responded with human connection.
Instead of sledgehammer-like truisms, the students responded with subtlety and creativity.
Instead of despair, one student responded with hope. Instead of surrender, one student responded with perseverance.
They responded with hand drawn flowers and white flags being snapped in half; with computer-generated art and bold typography. “They responded with such profound messages: ‘I would teach the world to understand.’ ‘I’d refuse to be silenced,’” says Bob.
“I can’t begin to describe my gratitude, and the inspiration and hopefulness [I draw] from their messages. They really get it! They’re not [humdrum], like, ‘Thanks for teaching us about HIV….’ They really get it,” he says, touched that students wholly welcome him with affection and support. “Colin’s light bulb poster was the one that had the message, ‘I would teach the world to understand.’ On the evening news, he said, ‘Understanding goes a long way.’ I was like, ‘Wow!’ I get goosebumps, [this] coming from a high school student instead of a film star who wants to help people with AIDS! They get the broader message and that truly was the original intent of the project.” Along with invoking compassion. On that score, Bob feels the posters are very well done.
“Take, for example, the poster of the girl’s face with the tear: ‘I would smile through the tears.’ A friend of mine, an activist and a person living with AIDS, said, ‘Don’t you think that’s further stigmatizing?’ And I said, ‘What? I think it was one of the most honest and heartfelt responses. I smile through the tears on a regular basis! That’s a very positive message. You want it to say, I drown in my tears?!’”
The design of the campaign was shaped by other concerns. “I was not only discouraged by the lack of awareness but, and I’m sure this speaks to what goes on elsewhere beyond Madison, any time you typically see awareness for AIDS is in walks or rides, when people want money. ‘Let’s raise awareness but at the same time we want your money.’” Compounded with this is the difficulty of bringing different organizations onto the same page—or poster.
“My idea was to keep the awareness out there and to build some unity in our state as far as organizations, not just have the person who’s sponsoring the walk or the ride on the poster but to have all the organizations on there, giving people resources,” notes Bob. Yet an initial foray by the campaign into multi-organization support was felled by ideological differences, so Bob returned to a less institutionalized, more grass-roots approach, even if that meant returning to square-one for funding sources. The first round was actually launched with no funding at all. Funders, such as The Greater Milwaukee Foundation’s Johnson and Pabst LGBT Humanity Fund and PAPI, Inc., have stepped forward as the campaign has progressed.
On a shoestring budget, the posters have reached some amazing heights. Some of the winning posters from the contest have appeared on billboards, bus ads, and in malls and restaurants countywide, thanks to an initial grant. Local sponsors have also contributed. And the posters have attracted the interest and support from all corners of the world. Pearson Education, for instance, has reprinted some of them in one of its textbooks. Kaiser Hospitals have displayed them at their locations. Partnerships with the people of Tibet and Macy’s Passport Event have supported the campaign and have given the posters legs to travel to new venues.
The beauty of the supportive response lies in its unity, says Bob. “We brought these posters in without money, without vested interests, without paid use for the posters, though we ask for a small donation…It’s not about us but the students and their message.”
The unity has lately been strengthened by the participation of local lawmakers, Governor Jim Doyle, Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin and Madison, Wisconsin Mayor Dave Cieslewicz. Their support is not just pat-on-the-back lip service, either. Bob spotlights Congresswoman Baldwin’s heartfelt response to the titular question, now posted on the What If It Were You? Web site. He adds, “I’m so grateful to our mayor, as he has attended the events and presented the winning posters to the students. He’s hands-on. Granted, we’re not New York City, but for a city of only 200,000 people to have our mayor inspired and actively involved is pretty heartening.” The mayor has even hung several posters in his office, underscoring his commitment to awareness. Bob gets verklempt at the thought that the students’ messages have touched the mayor in a profound way. These officials have also invited winning students for a face-to-face visit in their offices.
The fourth round of the poster contest starts in mid-October and will involve two high schools, Edgewood High School and Memorial High School. Says Bob: “I would like to see this campaign continue; the messages are timeless—there’s no date, no fundraiser, they can be out there forever as far as I’m concerned. I hope they are.”
—Chael Needle
Some of our youth HIV/AIDS awareness posters featured on HBO's Hung
What if it were you? featured on My Madison TV with Teri Barr
HIV can affect anyone regardless of sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, gender, age, or where they live. It's not who you are, it's what you do that puts you at risk.
The information on this page refers to individuals ages 13 and older unless otherwise noted.
What if it Were You? youth HIV/AIDS awareness and educational posters
What if it were you? featured on NBC News
HIV doesn’t discriminate—it never has, and it never will. It doesn’t matter your background, your status, your choices; the virus doesn’t care about borders or beliefs. And yet, stigma surrounding HIV/AIDS persists, creating barriers for those who need support the most. But imagine, just for a moment—what if it were you?
What if it were your diagnosis?
What if it were your loved one?
What if it were your reality?
Would you still look away? Would you still judge? Or would you finally understand the courage it takes to live openly, to fight daily battles with not just a virus, but also a world that often misunderstands and mistreats those affected?
I’ve lived with HIV for over four decades. My journey has been marked by loss, resilience, and the unshakable determination to fight for a world free of this epidemic. I’ve seen friends stigmatized into silence, lives cut short, and progress overshadowed by apathy and greed. Yet, I’ve also seen the power of compassion, education, and support to change lives.
When we choose to educate ourselves, to listen, to act with empathy rather than judgment, we begin to dismantle the stigma that holds so many back. We create a space where people can seek care, find community, and thrive. So today, I challenge you to ask yourself: What if it were you? Wouldn’t you hope for a world that chooses love over fear and action over silence? Together, we can be that world.
~ Bob Bowers
What if it Were You? was created by Bob Bowers and HIVictorious, Inc.
Our What if it Were You? posters continue to provide HIV awareness around the world
When I first conceived the What If It Were You? campaign, I knew it had to cut through the indifference that so often surrounds HIV/AIDS. I wanted people to truly feel the weight of what so many of us face every day. The name itself asks a question that’s impossible to ignore: What if it were you? What if the person struggling to access treatment, to navigate stigma, or to find acceptance was your partner, your child, your parent—or even yourself?
This wasn’t just a campaign to me; it was a deeply personal mission. It grew out of my own experience living with HIV/AIDS for over four decades. I’ve seen the fear in people’s eyes when they learn of my diagnosis. I’ve felt the sting of judgment and rejection. But I’ve also experienced incredible acts of love, support, and understanding—often from those who first needed to be shown the humanity behind the statistics.
What If It Were You? wasn’t created for pity; it was created for connection. I wanted to bridge the gap between “us” and “them,” to remind people that there is no “them”—there’s only us. Through powerful visuals and messages, the campaign challenged stereotypes and built empathy. It encouraged people to reflect on their own biases and recognize the shared humanity that unites us all.
Years later, the message still resonates. Each poster, each story shared, each conversation sparked is part of a greater legacy—a legacy that says no one deserves to be forgotten, ignored, or dismissed. What If It Were You? is more than a question; it’s a call to action, a reminder, and a challenge to the world to do better.
Copyright © 2000 - 2024
Bob Bowers aka One Tough Pirate
www.onetoughpirate.com
Houston, Texas - All Rights Reserved.
Website last updated on December 3, 2024
End HIV/AIDS! Never surrender! Never forget!
We use cookies to analyze website traffic and optimize your website experience. By accepting our use of cookies, your data will be aggregated with all other user data.