This essay combines economic, historical and textual analysis to map the role of consumer-directed pharmaceutical advertising in the construction of the HIV/AIDS medical marketplace. In an apparent break from previous mainstream media representations that focused on HIV/AIDS as a 'death sentence', recent pharmaceutical advertising emphasizes the manageability of the syndrome by telling patients/consumers how they can live with HIV/AIDS. Historicizing the rise of direct-to-consumer drug advertising, the essay examines how this mode of consumerism might facilitate 'political activism at the point of consumption' (Nava, 1999).