A video advertisement made in Germany depicting a naked and grinning Adolf Hitler having sex with a woman has been strongly criticised around the world by many—but not all—experts on HIV and AIDS as the wrong approach to increase awareness of the disease.

The video and accompanying print advertisements and posters, which also feature the dictators Saddam Hussein and Joseph Stalin, carry the slogan: “AIDS is a mass murderer.” The campaign was commissioned by Regenbogen, an AIDS awareness group that believes that public concern about HIV and AIDS is diminishing, even while the number of infections and deaths continues to rise.

On the campaign website Regenbogen, whose name means rainbow, explains: “The campaign is designed to shake people up, to bring the topic of AIDS back to centre stage, and to reverse the trend of unprotected sexual intercourse.”

The 45 second video begins with an unidentifiable man and woman entering a dimly lit apartment and beginning to fondle each other. They …