The Grim Reaper is a 1987 Australian television commercial aimed at raising public awareness on the dangers of AIDS.

The commercial was created by Siimon Reynolds and narrated by voice-over artist John Stanton,[3] and was first screened on 5 April 1987.

[1] The commercial caused immediate controversy due to its confronting tone and imagery, and the Grim Reaper figure in the ad became unintentionally identified with gay men, provoking fear towards the LGBT community.

[1] At the time of its release, the commercial caused immediate controversy due to its confronting tone and frightening imagery, which included scenes where children and a woman holding a baby were knocked down by the Grim Reaper, and the claim that AIDS could "kill more Australians than World War II" if left unchecked.

[1][7] The ad also received criticism for provoking fear and hostility towards members of Australia's LGBT community and those positive with HIV.

[6] The commercial came to unintentionally identify the Grim Reaper figure in the ad with gay men, who at the time were scapegoated as spreaders of the disease and further marginalised because of this association.

[11] In Australia, the Grim Reaper commercial has remained an infamous and memorable example of a confronting but effective government public service campaign decades since its original airing,[8] and has provided inspiration for a number of subsequent public service campaigns with similarly confronting imagery.

[1] In 2017 Australian entrepreneur Dick Smith commissioned a television commercial that invoked the original Grim Reaper ad, including the use of John Stanton as narrator, to launch his "Fair Go" wealth disparity campaign and to raise awareness of his view that the current rate of population growth in Australia is unsustainable.

[15][16] During the COVID-19 pandemic, Reynolds has suggested using similar emotionally shocking Grim Reaper-style ads to improve government messaging in order to prevent the further spread of the COVID-19 virus and to scare people out of vaccine hesitancy.