‘MASS-MURDERER’: An Aids-awareness advert depicting Adolf Hitler having unprotected sex has been condemned by health charities. The provocative commercial, which ends with the tag-line “Aids is a mass murderer”, aims to scare young people into using condoms.In the highly-sexualised clip, which can only be shown after the watershed, a couple undress and begin to make love in a dimly-lit bedroom.The steamy clip takes a macabre twist when the camera pans to the man’s face —— revealing him to be Adolf Hitler.The commercial has been released to coincide with 2009 World Aids Day, but established HIV and Aids charities have distanced themselves from its message, saying that it could make life more difficult for sufferers.“Of course there are many HIV organisations that run their own campaigns, however I think the advert is incredibly stigmatising to people living with HIV who already face much stigma and discrimination due to ignorance about the virus,” a spokeswoman for the National Aids Trust, which co-ordinates World Aids Day in Britain, said.The videos will be broadcast on German television stations, but only after 9pm because of their sexual content. —— Ananova.
WEIGHTY MATTER: EasyJet airline is being sued by a passenger after check in staff refused to let her board because she was “too fat.”Instead check in staff handling the internal Italian flight from Bari to Rome asked her to jump on scales in front of a queue of other travellers and said she could only fly if she bought two tickets.“I’m sorry, but you’re too fat and if you want to fly with us, you have to buy two tickets,” the check-in girl told the astounded passenger, reports La Repubblica newspaper.Anna Delluci (55) —— who tips the scales at 100 kgs —— stormed off and is now suing EasyJet for the humiliation they put her through.EasyJet executives issued an apology.Thomas Meister —— corporate communication manager —— said: “It was an unforgivable mistake. We’ll investigate to establish what had happened. Our company doesn’t have special rules about people’s weight.”He added: “We only have a rule about minimum space between seats (17 inches) and we expect customers to buy two tickets if they know they cannot fly comfortably.“But we don’t ask them their weight, let alone have them weighed in front of the other customers”. —— Ananova.
TWITTER OPERA: The British Royal Opera House is to stage an opera written by members of the public on Twitter.People are invited to submit online “tweets” —— messages of up to 140 characters —— to form the new libretto, reports the BBC.The first scene of the as-yet-untitled work has already been completed and features a man who is kidnapped by a group of birds.The project was launched as part of the Royal Opera House’s Ignite season and aims to get more people involved in the creative side of opera.Alison Duthie, head of ROH2 said: “It’s the people’s opera and the perfect way for everyone to become involved with the inventiveness of opera as the ultimate form of storytelling.“Expect the unexpected —— who knows how the story will evolve, but get tweeting and you can play your part in your opera.”Excerpts will be performed at the Royal Opera House late September.The opera will be set to original music by composer Helen Porter along with some more familiar opera tunes. —— BBC.
