The Grim Reaper is a 1987 Australian television commercial aimed at raising public awareness on the dangers of AIDS. Created as part of a $3 million education campaign by the National Advisory Committee on AIDS (NACAIDS), the advertisement depicted the Grim Reaper ten-pin bowling in a bowling alley and knocking over men, women, and child "pins" which represented AIDS victims. The commercial was created by Siimon Reynolds and narrated by voice-over artist John Stanton, and was first screened on 5 April 1987. The ad was also supplemented by printed material which explained the disease and detailed preventative measures.

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. It aired for only three weeks out of an intended six week run, cut short due to media criticism and public outcry. Nevertheless, the commercial was regarded as highly successful in raising awareness with the Australian public about the issue, with a 327% increase of calls to AIDS related hotlines during the first month of the campaign compared to the 7 months before.

In Australia, the Grim Reaper commercial has remained a memorable example of a confronting but effective government public service campaign decades since its original airing, and continues to inspire subsequent government public service advertising campaigns. It has been recognised as a landmark public health initiative.

The ad was commissioned by health consultant Bill Bowtell, who was a senior advisor to Federal Minister for Health Neal Blewett. Bowtell led the Australian Federal government's response to the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s.

Siimon Reynolds on the idea of the commercial:

...bowling was in my head. I was bowling every week. And I used to love the animation at Christmas with... for Scrooge, where the Grim Reaper came and visited Scrooge. And I thought, "Well, maybe the Grim Reaper could machine-gun them." Then I thought, no, that'll be a five-second ad and it'll be too short. What's another way he could kill them? He could bowl balls at them. And those two things came together.

Of course, back then, the data was unclear. In some countries—for instance, Italy—almost as many women who had AIDS as men. I think there was also a bit of a political fear that there'll be a backlash against gays if everybody thinks it's some kind of gay plague. But, you know, other countries had failed in their AIDS education because heterosexuals weren't listening. We really had to wake people up. There was a lot of information about how to stop AIDS out there, but no-one was reading it.

The commercial cost $300,000 ($750,242 in 2020) to film, and utilised a seven-foot (2.1 m) tall bowling ball on an oversized bowling alley set. The actors were told to fall to the side so the giant ball would not crush them. Reynolds asked John Stanton to sound like Richard Burton when it came to do his voice over.