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Julio and Marisol

US public-service advertising campaign

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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 19, 2026
Entity authorityQ85772444
Source-derived summary

Julio and Marisol were the protagonists in a bilingual public-service advertising campaign (officially titled Decision in English or La Decisión in Spanish but commonly known by the characters' names) that ran from 1989 to 2001 in the New York City Subway. The focus of the campaign was promoting condom use to prevent AIDS. The well-known catchphrase was a line from the first installment, in which Marisol sobs, "I love you, but not enough to die for you".

The storyline, told in comic format in a style similar to a telenovela, follows a young Hispanic couple as they explore human sexuality and the effects of the AIDS epidemic on their relationship. The campaign was designed to appeal to a Hispanic audience, who were considered particularly at risk due to cultural attitudes that discouraged condom use. With action covering just a few days, the story was told at a rate of about one episode per year. The campaign has been described as "one part steamy soap opera, one part language instruction, and two parts AIDS education service".

The ads were praised by public health officials for presenting the educational material through situations that people could relate to their own lives, and by AIDS activists for breaking down the social stigma associated with the disease. They drew criticism, however, from family-values advocates who objected to the promotion of condoms and the tacit acceptance of homosexuality. Others objected to the stereotyping of Hispanics and the absence of gay or black characters. The artistic style of the drawings met with mixed reviews.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Julio and Marisol” as uS public-service advertising campaign. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA strong contextual entry point for chronology, institutions and public events when official records are distinguished from later interpretation. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1989, 2001—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. The account is most persuasive where Julio, Marisol and public-service can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the history & society register because the source frames it as uS public-service advertising campaign. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Chronology, provenance and viewpoint should be read together before a broad social or political interpretation is accepted. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 19, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q85772444. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1989 and 2001.

Critical limits

Official terminology may obscure informal participation, dissent or communities documented only indirectly. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Compare institutional narratives with records created by participants and affected communities. Dates and formal titles are useful anchors, but not substitutes for context.

Best used for
  • Event chronology
  • Institutional context
  • Locating named record creators
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Contemporary correspondence, government or organizational records, oral histories and cited historical scholarship.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Julio and Marisol”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Julio and Marisol primary sources, Julio and Marisol archive and Julio research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Julio and Marisol”?
  2. Which voices are present, absent or mediated by the institution?
  3. Who created the surviving record, and for what administrative purpose?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Julio and Marisol” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.