In The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, Erving Goffman writes,“the crucial sociological consideration|.|.|. is merely that impressions fostered in everyday performances are subject to disruption”(1959: 66). Typically, studies of “impression management” focus on impressions emergent in interactions between people, but AIDS media campaigns are also carefully crafted impressions. Campaign producers design a clear, culturally sensitive message intended to persuade community members to adopt protective behaviors—like staying faithful. Goffman’s ideas apply equally well to interactions between people and objects, with one important distinction: for interactions with cultural objects like AIDS campaigns, producers craft intended impressions well before audiences “meet” the advertisement in situ. For this billboard just outside the bustling Nima market in Accra, Ghana (see front cover), staff at Family Health International (FHI) worked with a local Muslim organization to design an advertisement that met the needs of the community. The design was pretested with Nima residents, and approved (initially) by the local Imam. 1 In this short essay, I ask what disrupts the impressions intended by this billboard’s designers. To answer, I draw on Goffman’s use of “misrepresentation,”“appearance,” and “definition of the situation.” Before discussing the issue of disruption, let me briefly articulate the social, epidemiological, and neighborhood contexts around this billboard. HIV prevalence in Ghana is low (2.2%) compared to other sub-Saharan African nations (Ghana Statistical Service et al. 2004). The billboard claims “AIDS Gaskia Ne” or “AIDS is Real,” a Hausa translation of a popular slogan. Despite the universal awareness of AIDS among Ghanaians, AIDS is not truly “real” for many Ghanaians, as most do not personally know someone who is HIV-positive. Additionally, public stigma curtails discussion of the disease. As such, AIDS campaigns are one of the few sources of accurate information about HIV prevention. As the billboard’s parenthetical “(s)” makes explicit, polygamous relationships are relatively common among Ghanaian Muslims. With the identification of “concurrent” sexual relations as central to the rapid spread of HIV through sub-Saharan African countries (as opposed to serial monogamy), the practice of polygamy concerns Ghanaian AIDS organizations (Morris and Kretzschmar 1997; Epstein 2007). Despite the relatively low HIV prevalence among Ghanaian Muslims (when compared to Christians), Family Health International felt it necessary to address polygamy as a potential vector of transmission. 2 The placement of this billboard at the market in Nima—one of the poorest slums in Accra and a neighborhood with one of the largest concentrations of Muslim residents