October 4, 2007

A Social Marketing Campaign That Works

A survey examining the effects of a recent AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) social-marketing campaign entitled “Stay Negative” found that viewers had a high level of recalling the campaign’s important messages, and that it translated well across ethnic, age and socioeconomic groups.

The campaign, created by Fraser Communications and partially funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), contained simple, straightforward messages to raise awareness among gay men in Los Angeles County that the risk of contracting HIV still remains. For example, one ad featured three rows of condoms with a day of the week written below each one, and the message: "Have fun. Stay Negative.”

The post-campaign survey found that 73 percent of respondents felt the advertisements reminded them of the importance of safe sex and how to stay healthy. And eight in 10 African Americans and Latinos said that they felt they could relate to the advertisements.

"We are particularly proud that the key messages of the 'Stay Negative' campaign-be healthy, stay negative, get tested-successfully broke through to its target audience, despite an atmosphere of fatigue and complacency that often surrounds safer-sex messages 25 years into the AIDS epidemic," said Michael Weinstein, president of AIDS Healthcare Foundation.