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REPORTLeveraging The Power Of The Media To Combat HIV/AIDS
Improving HIV/AIDS prevention efforts, especially those focused on young people, is a key challenge in the fight against the pandemic. Since the mid-1990s the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation has partnered with U.S.-based media companies on comprehensive HIV/AIDS campaigns. This paper outlines the unique public education model that it is using, and how Kaiser is expanding this work globally by working with some of the largest media companies in the world to undertake new initiatives in Russia and India.
The great public health challenge of our generation is HIV/AIDS. It has prompted an unprecedented response from governments, international organizations, and the private sector. Yet even as more attention and resources are being directed at prevention and treatment programs, need continues to exceed the efforts being made. Concerned organizations must develop creative strategies to leverage resources to have the greatest impact. One way in which the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation has been working to help stem the spread of HIV/AIDS is by engaging media companies from around the world as active participants in public education efforts to which they devote communications expertise, creativity, and, most importantly, media assets, such as advertising space and other programming and editorial material. Kaiser, an operating foundation, not a traditional grant-making foundation, provides media expertise as well as funding, as do its media company partners.
Mass media are playing a growing role in the lives of people around the world. In China nearly all households had access to television in 1999, and more than 900 million Chinese are regular viewers of Chinese state television CCTV.1 India has eighty-six million households with televisions, which means that 43 percent of the country’s population views TV.2 In South Africa more than 90 percent of youth (in a 2001 survey) watch TV or listen to the radio, even in rural areas. In the United States, Kaiser’s national surveys have confirmed that the media are one of the most important resources for Americans on HIV/AIDS—the media are named more often than health care providers or schools.3 The Kaiser Family Foundation conceptualized and co-organized with the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) the first-ever meeting on HIV/AIDS, with the UN Secretary General and chief executive officers (CEOs) of media companies around the world in attendance, in January 2004, at the UN. At that meeting the Global Media AIDS initiative was launched by Secretary General Kofi Annan, who presided over the gathering, referred to it at the time as "one of the most important meetings the year will bring." At the meeting, companies including Viacom, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), and the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) pledged to continue and expand their cross-company public education efforts on HIV/AIDS. Proposals for new initiatives, including efforts in Russia by Gazprom-Media—one of the country’s largest private media holdings—and in India by the Star Group Ltd., Rupert Murdoch’s media holding, were also announced. In addition, every executive in attendance signed a statement of support pledging to raise the level of public awareness and understanding about HIV/AIDS. Russia. In the year after the UN meeting, the Russian Media Partnership to Combat HIV/AIDS (RMP)—a group of more than thirty media and communications partners, including television networks such as NTV, STS, and TNT; print partners such as Izvestia and Komsomolskaya Pravda; radio networks such as Ekho Moskvy; wire service RIA Novosti; and the leading online company, Russia Online—was formed.4 It is directed by the Moscow-based Transatlantic Partners against AIDS (TPAA) with substantive and technical direction from Kaiser, the U.S.-based media company Viacom, and UNAIDS Russia. The partnership launched Russia’s first coordinated public education campaign, StopSPID (Stop AIDS), on World AIDS Day 2004. The effort created public service advertisements (PSAs) on television, radio, print, and online platforms; special radio and television programming and print publications; and free print and Web-based information for consumers. To expand interest in the RMP model in other parts of the region, Kaiser, TPAA, and UNAIDS co-organized a Eurasia Media Leaders Summit on HIV/AIDS in Moscow in October 2004, with CEOs from media companies in Russia, Ukraine, and other countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation provides financial support for TPAA. Creative summit. In November 2004 more than 100 creative and programming directors from thirty-five media companies, top communications and advertising experts, and representatives of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) around the world that are involved in HIV/AIDS met in New York at the UN to exchange ideas on how to incorporate HIV/AIDS messages into short- and long-form programming.5 This Global Creative Summit on HIV/AIDS was organized by MTV Networks International, Viacom, Kaiser, UNAIDS, and the UN’s Department of Information. The Gates Foundation and the International Academy of Television Arts and Sciences also supported the summit. India. In January 2005 Prime Minister Manmohan Singh oversaw a meeting of top media executives from across India for that country’s first national Media Leaders Summit on HIV/AIDS.6 The meeting was convened by the Indian information and broadcasting ministry, health and family welfare ministry, and the Heroes Project, cochaired by actor Richard Gere and conducted in partnership with Kaiser and the Avahan Initiative, a project of the Gates Foundation.7 The summit resulted in a commitment by media companies—including Prasar Bharati, the nation’s government-run television and radio company; commercial television properties STAR India, Sony TV, New Delhi TV, and MTV India; and leading newspapers, such as the Hindu (circulation 900,000) and Hindustan Times—to supporting public education efforts on HIV/AIDS. Among the commitments made was a pledge by Sony to integrate HIV messages into three episodes of the top-rated Indian Idol show, which is modeled on the popular American Idol; and the Hindustan Times’ plan to develop an informational booklet for women on HIV/AIDS.
These international efforts build on a public education partnership model developed over the past decade by Kaiser in collaboration with U.S. media companies, including MTV, with the Fight for Your Rights: Protect Yourself campaign; Black Entertainment Television (BET), with the Rap It Up campaign; Univision, with the Entérate: Protégete (Get Informed/Protect Yourself) campaign; and KNOW HIV/AIDS, a partnership with Viacom.8 Under this model, Kaiser and the media company enter into an agreement to provide financial and substantive expertise that goes beyond typical public service efforts. Among Kaiser’s contributions are issues research; briefings for writers, producers, and other media staff; substantive guidance on message development; and funds to support program production and the creation of informational resources for consumers. The media partner contributes creative and communications expertise; on-air programming on the issues addressed by the campaign; and guaranteed placement of the PSAs and other content to reach target audiences. This last point is noteworthy because traditional PSAs rely on available media space, which does not ensure placement for a given audience. Since the launch of KNOW HIV/AIDS in January 2003, targeted PSAs have aired tens of thousands of times on Viacom television and radio networks—including CBS, UPN, various cable channels, and Infinity Radio. Also, outdoor ads, such as those on billboards and buses, have appeared in the top U.S. markets as part of the campaign’s partnership with Kaiser. Viacom’s commitment for the advertising placements alone has exceeded $380 million in the campaign’s first two years. With $220 million more committed for 2005, the campaign’s three-year value is more than $600 million. The value of the campaign being undertaken in Russia, StopSPID, is estimated at more than $200 million over three years. Star India’s commitment to the Heroes Project is approximately $15 million over three years; the other media commitments being made in India are in the process of being valued. Another way in which Kaiser’s approach differs from traditional public service efforts is in the reinforcement of messages beyond PSAs in other programming and editorial content. For example, as part of the KNOW HIV/AIDS campaign, popular television shows produced by Viacom, such as Becker (CBS), Girlfriends (UPN), Judging Amy (CBS), and One on One (UPN), have incorporated HIV/AIDS into storylines seen by millions of viewers. To encourage and inform this kind of programming, Kaiser conducts briefings on HIV/AIDS for CBS and UPN executives, producers, and writers at the start of the television season and provides one-on-one support to series as requested throughout the year. In partnership with MTV, BET, and Univisión, Kaiser also produces long-form special programming on HIV and related topics, including news, documentaries, and question-and-answer shows with a studio audience. Since 1997 Kaiser has produced or consulted with these networks on more than forty original programs and dozens of ongoing series as part of its partnerships. All of the PSAs and many of the television shows produced under Kaiser’s partnerships are tagged with toll-free hotlines or Web sites developed exclusively for these campaigns, or both. Through these services, viewers can receive free information, find clinics in their local area, or reach counselors. Kaiser’s basic strategy is to reinforce messages across multiple platforms and media while operating at a level of intensity that can truly have an impact. To extend its reach and increase credibility, Kaiser seeks the involvement of HIV/AIDS organizations, other NGOs, and government agencies in its efforts. To the extent possible, its HIV/AIDS-related programming and PSAs are available rights-free for other media companies to use and for non-media use among organizations doing education or outreach work. Taken together, Kaiser’s U.S. campaigns have delivered information about HIV/AIDS and related issues to millions of young people. More than twenty-four million visitors have logged onto the campaigns’ Web sites; nearly one million informational guides have been distributed; and more than 2.4 million calls have been received by the various toll-free hot-lines linked to the campaigns. Recent national surveys of young people have shown encouraging results. Among those who have seen the PSAs or other programming distributed under Kaiser’s campaigns, significant percentages report talking with parents, partners, and health care providers about issues such as HIV and getting tested for HIV or other sexually transmitted diseases.9 Although these indicators are promising, media are just one element among a wide array of influences on young people. Research will also be undertaken in India and Russia as the efforts there get under way.
Media can help break the silence that surrounds issues such as AIDS. This is especially critical in countries with emerging HIV epidemics, such as Russia and China, where the political leadership has been slow to take on the issue. The recent media leaders’ summit in India, hosted by the prime minister, demonstrated the potential of such efforts to mobilize political, social, and business leadership. Kaiser has approached its entertainment media partnerships as business propositions with a philanthropic purpose. It seeks specific agreements from companies that it works with, detailing the commitments in formal memoranda of understanding. When possible, Kaiser asks companies to designate a senior-level, in-house point-of-contact to help make the initiative a part of the corporate structure. Its campaigns are undertaken in much the same way that any commercial product would be marketed—by using the best creative teams to help develop compelling messages for the target audience and securing commitments that ensure that they are seen on the right television shows in the right time slots. The difference is that Kaiser’s "product" is HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention, not sneakers or beer. But the ads and shows that it helps produce are no less professional or edgy than ads for commercial products or other entertainment. Kaiser understands that media are only one element of the fight against HIV, but it is an important one—especially when it comes to reaching youth—and it is viewed as one of several areas in which Kaiser can make a contribution. Kaiser’s proposition to media companies is that they can entertain, make money, and do good at the same time.
Matt James (mjames{at}kff.org) is senior vice president for media and public education and executive director of kaisernetwork.org at the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) in Menlo Park, California. Tina Hoff is a vice president and director of entertainment media partnerships; Julia Davis, associate director of U.S. programs, entertainment media partnerships; and Rob Graham, a communications officer, at the KFF.
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