Despite rumors to the contrary, Hennepin County officials say they are not pulling back from its HIV prevention advertising campaign. Ads were placed in bus shelters last year along Minneapolis’ Hennepin Avenue and at several bus shelters in other parts of the city carried HIV-prevention messages targeted at all Minnesotans, including several aimed specifically at gay and bisexual men. Last month, a source in the LGBT community tipped TheColu.mn off to a vociferous complaint about one ad on Minneapolis’ Nicollet Island, which allegedly caused Hennepin County to request that the offending advertisement be taken down by bus shelter owner CBS Outdoor.

David Brummel, the Hennepin County Program Supervisor overseeing the ad campaign, confirmed that a Hennepin County resident had indeed filed a complaint with their county commissioner, Jeff Johnson, regarding the ad at a bus stop across the street from Minneapolis’ De La Salle High School, a private Catholic school. The ad, Brummel said, was part of the county’s ongoing “You May Be ___” ad campaign, designed to increase Hennepin County citizens’ awareness of HIV risks by encouraging people to ask their sexual partners about their HIV status. The caller, he said, took issue with both the ad’s subject matter and the way it was presented.

Brummel suggested that rumors about the county backing away from the “You May Be ___” campaign were based on the ads’ recent disappearance from bus stops. This was due, Brummel explained, to the contract’s expiration. Hennepin County had bought ad space from CBS Outdoor between September 7 and November 1, 2009. Because no other buyer had come forward, CBS Outdoor had left the ads in place until recently, when Brummel said that a new buyer had purchased the ad spaces in question.

However, Johnson, the Hennepin County Commissioner who fielded the complaint, told TheColu.mn that he agreed with the caller, saying the ad ”may be appropriate for a gay magazine…but I thought it might be a little too over the top” for bus stop posters.

The ad featured two shirtless men lying in bed together with the phrase “You May Be In Love, But You’re Not Immune From HIV.”

Johnson said he contacted the managers of the “You May Be ___” campaign, and they worked together to craft a solution to the single caller’s complaint. He said that since managers planned on change the ads as part of this year’s ad campaign, he requested that the campaign team find a new graphic for the poster that would still help the campaign reach the same demographic as the offending advertisement. Johnson denied that he was closely involved in any subsequent decisions about the ad campaign.

“I didn’t have an interest in following up, demanding an OK for whatever new graphic they chose,” he told TheColu.mn.

The ads will re-appear on bus stops either in this month or next, Hennepin County spokesperson Luanne Schmaus told TheColu.mn, as the county’s grant to continue the program had recently been renewed.

“We’re definitely not giving up on advertising,” Schmuas said.