Advertising and Marketing Agencies To Launch HIV/AIDS Awareness Campaign on World AIDS Day

Seven of the world's leading advertising and marketing agencies have collaborated to produce "Turn on TV," a multiplatform media campaign to raise HIV/AIDS awareness that will be launched on World AIDS Day, Friday, Dec. 1, London's Guardian reports. Cake, 180 Amsterdam, Wieden & Kennedy, Lowe Worldwide, Young & Rubicam and Ogilvy & Mather have partnered with WPP and MTV Networks International to create a set of 24 ads that will be aired on 57 MTV channels around the world, as well as on MTV's Web site and other platforms, according to the Guardian (Carter, Guardian, 11/27). The ads -- which are part of the Staying Alive campaign, a multimedia global HIV prevention initiative that aims to reduce stigma associated with HIV/AIDS and empower young people to protect themselves from the virus -- also will be shown by 35 international broadcasters and are aimed at a potential audience of one billion people (GMAI release, 11/27). According to Bill Roedy, president of MTVNI and founding chair of the Global Media AIDS Initiative Leadership Committee, the ads were designed to be catchy, funny and controversial in order to reach youth. "The challenge is to fight through the complacency, fatigue and stigma (of AIDS)," Roedy said (Holton, Reuters, 11/27). The project is part of GMAI (Guardian, 11/27). GMAI was established in January 2004 at a media leaders meeting and conceived of and organized by UNAIDS and the Kaiser Family Foundation after a call-to-action by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan for world media leaders to use communication resources to help address the HIV/AIDS pandemic (Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report, 8/8). The 24 ads are offered rights-free and at no cost to any broadcaster or content distributor (GMAI release, 11/27).