page_title: Julio and Marisol
section_title: Production history
hierarchical_section_title: Julio and Marisol / Production history
caption_attribution_description: English: Miss Subways ad (December 2010). Photo taken at NYC Transit Museum.
context_page_description: Julio and Marisol was a public-service advertising campaign which ran in the New York City Subway from 1989 to 1997. The focus of the campaign was AIDS and safe sex education, specifically urging the use of condoms. It was primarily targeted at young Hispanics, who the New York City Health Department felt were not receptive to existing outreach efforts.
  Publication spanned the mayoralties of David Dinkins and Rudy Giuliani, with Margaret Hamburg serving as Commissioner of Health under both administrations. Assistant health commissioner Ann Sternberg managed the series.
  Often compared to a steamy soap opera, the main story covered just a few days of real-time, but was released at an average rate of about one episode per year. The campaign's catchphrase was a line from the first installment, in which Marisol sobs, "I love you, but not enough to die for you".
  The series appeared in Spanish and English versions, titled La Decision, and Decision, respectively. Initially funded by a $60,000 Centers for Disease Control grant, it appeared in both print and broadcast versions, in comic book form, and printed on T-shirts.
context_section_description: The campaign was initially contracted to Conill, a Latino marketing agency, who determined that a photo-novella would be the best format for the target audience.  Conill's contract only covered the first episode, with subsequent episodes managed internally by the Health Department using freelance artists for the drawing. 
  In 1995, a new advertising policy was instituted for the subway, in which large customers could purchase all the available space on each side of a car.  Previously, individual spots were sold, often to small businesses. 
  This new policy left no space for the Julio and Marisol spots, and the series was halted, with eight episodes having been published, and a ninth one already prepared.  The new policy reserved 20% of the cars for smaller advertisers, but it was felt that this would be inappropriate for the campaign.  The New York Times reported that Ann Sternberg said, "she didn't want Julio and Marisol appearing among ads aimed at hemorrhoid sufferers or people with foot-odor problems".
  The series returned in 1997, when negotiations between the Health Department and the Metropolitan Transit Authority provided a path for the spots to appear in 60% of the subway's cars.
caption: Overhead strip ads, circa 1960s.
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