The voice is as familiar as a favorite rocking chair but the message is startlingly new to country music airwaves: "This is the Ol' Possum George Jones saying don't play possum with AIDS."
The 30-second spot by this elder statesman of Nashville is part of a massive AIDS-awareness media campaign launched Thursday by a country music industry that is showing an expanding social consciousness.The AIDS education program - described by Mary-Chapin Carpenter as "the most direct messages that you'll see on TV" - follows a country music campaign against illiteracy, concerts for flood relief in the Midwest, and, of course, Willie Nelson's continuing Farm Aid efforts to help America's farmers.
Carpenter said she is particularly proud of the "candor" in the AIDS awareness campaign, which includes appearances by 46 country music stars ranging from Garth Brooks to Tammy Wynette and that includes print, radio and television messages.
Indeed, campaign organizers conceded that some traditionally conservative country music stations may be reluctant to play the spots that frankly warn listeners to take protective measures.
"Some stations are still keeping a code of silence," said Kristine Gebbie, the Clinton administration's national AIDS policy coordinator.
The campaign, dubbed "Break the Silence," was led by Carpenter, a country folk feminist with an Ivy League education, and Mark Chesnutt, a neo-traditionalist with a twang who hails from Jasper, Texas. Chesnutt said he decided to take action after reading that AIDS is spreading much faster in rural areas than in cities.
Among the other singers who appear on the AIDS awareness spots are Texans Clint Black, Holly Dunn, Radney Foster and Nelson, as well as Vince Gill, Dolly Parton, Michelle Wright, Wynonna, Little Texas, Emmylou Harris and a slew of other Nashville stars.
The organizers said they have commitments for the TV spots to run on CBS, NBC, ABC, Fox, the Nashville Network, Country Music TV and Ted Turner's WTBS. Twenty national publications will run full-page ads, including "Rolling Stone" and "Country Music" magazine. Audio spots were sent to 3,000 country music radio stations, as well as to 1,500 stations with other formats.
Carpenter dodged a question on whether the country music community - long considered the right wing of the entertainment industry - was slow in responding to the sometimes controversial AIDS crisis. The concern "isn't with how long it's taken" but rather with what the new push can accomplish, she said at a Capitol Hill press conference.
"This campaign is all about education. Some of these spots are more direct than we've seen in the past. That's what's going to make it work," said Carpenter, the 1993 Country Music Association female vocalist of the year.
However, Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said credibility is the real key to the campaign - "Public officials don't have credibility. Country music stars have credibility."
Some of the campaign spots have titles that sound like country music songs: "AIDS Ain't Just Some Big City Problem." "Sleeping With Your Partner Is Sleeping With Their Past." "Where Were You A Decade Ago?" and "You Don't Get AIDS From Mosquitoes."
Several ads emphasize that abstinence is the only sure way to avoid sexual transmission of the disease, while others advocate using latex condoms during sex. One lists anti-AIDS virtues: "Commitment. Faithfulness. Love. And Prevention."
The television spots show rapid cuts of singers talking about AIDS, mixed with information about the disease scrolling on a TelePrompTer. In a print ad, Carpenter says latex condoms can prevent AIDS - "But you have to use them properly, and that means every time you have sex, from start to finish."
Carpenter said she is not worried that the campaign might offend her conservative fans. "None of that makes a bit of difference if people are dying," she said.