Enjoy AZT - Avram Finkelstein

A 1989 political poster by Avram Finkelstein that uses corporate branding to critique the pharmaceutical industry's response to the AIDS crisis.

Enjoy AZT is a work of political graphic design created by Avram Finkelstein in 1989. It functions as a critique of the pharmaceutical industry and government policy during the AIDS crisis in the United States. The design appropriates the visual identity of the Coca-Cola brand, using its signature red background, white typography, and distinctive curved white line to subvert a symbol of global consumerism.

By replacing the familiar brand name with the acronym for Zidovudine, an antiretroviral medication, Finkelstein draws attention to the high cost and limited efficacy of the drug at the time. The text at the bottom of the poster questions the ethics of the pharmaceutical company Burroughs Wellcome, noting the disparity between the massive public expenditure on research and the private profits generated by the drug. The inclusion of the phrase, Is this health care or wealth care?, serves as a direct challenge to the viewer regarding the commodification of life-saving medicine.

Finkelstein was a founding member of the Silence=Death Project and the Gran Fury collective, groups that utilised graphic design to communicate urgent political messages during the height of the epidemic. This work is an example of how visual culture can be repurposed to interrogate power structures. The stark, high-contrast aesthetic ensures the message remains legible and confrontational. It is a piece of historical documentation that records the anger and frustration felt by activists who sought to hold institutions accountable for their response to the health crisis. The poster remains a reference point for the use of irony and appropriation in political communication.