This Master's thesis is a visual study of metaphors in HIV pharmaceutical advertising. The study analyzes military metaphors and the metaphor of cushioning 'difference' in the journal AIDS from 1997 to early 2004. I examine the metaphoric representations of HIV and AIDS in the HIV pharmaceutical drug advertising in AIDS to engage with the ways in which the epidemic both reflects and amplifies existing social fears of the 'other', who is marked by gendered, racialized, sexual, classed and disabled 'differences'. The theoretical framework of this thesis draws on feminist and post-colonial literature in cultural studies on and relating to HIV/AIDS, as well as queer theory and studies in visual culture. I used a method of visual discourse analysis called 'queer bricolage'. This study contributes to literature about the cultural studies of HIV/AIDS and visual methodologies, in particular of visual discourse analysis.