Media & Advertising


TeenAIDS student Matt Hawkins described a campaign that he and other students created, intended to help fight the spread of AIDS among young Americans.
    
BY: STUART ELLIOTT
Published: May 11, 2009

CAMPAIGN SPOTLIGHT: Fighting AIDS, Peer to Peer

By now, the concept of consumer-generated content, also known as user-generated content, has become familiar to the denizens of Madison Avenue. Asking the people who are meant to buy a product to produce ads for that product makes sense on many levels, even if opening the creative process to outsiders may bruise a fragile agency ego or two.

But what if the point of an ad is not to peddle a product but to change behavior? Who better to help determine the content of a public-service campaign than the intended audience for the message? In that spirit, 17 students ages 16 to 23 gathered recently in Washington to create a campaign about H.I.V. and AIDS that would resonate with their peers, who account for such a large percentage of new H.I.V. infections worldwide. The multimedia campaign was produced in less than a week at a kind of creativity boot camp called the Youth AIDS Media Institute.

The institute was formed on behalf of Cable Positive, the AIDS action organization of the cable and telecommunications industry, with the support of the Motorola Foundation. Among those assisting the students as they worked on the campaign were the Watsons, a New York agency that is the agency of record for Cable Positive, and the filmmakers who founded Lookalike Productions, Lisa Lax and Nancy Stern...

... The 17 students who composed the institute came from 4 community-based AIDS service organizations in the Northeast. Some previously worked with Cable Positive on local public service announcements; others have worked on text-message campaigns intended to reduce the spread of H.I.V.

“We used humor as our main approach to grab people who wouldn’t normally be listening to AIDS-awareness messages,” says Matt Hawkins, a 20-year-old junior at Fitchburg State College in Fitchburg, Mass. He was one of four students from the college who are members of the TeenAIDS-PeerCorps there and went to Washington to work on the campaign [the other students included Peter Keto, Chris Downs, and Megan Benevides under the supervision of Dr. John Chittick, Executive Director].

“I’m a communications major, studying mostly video production, and I got to use my skills working on the video production and graphics portion of the project,” Mr. Hawkins says, “I would like to be doing video production one day and produce my own movies, if I’m lucky,” he adds. “Advertising, mass media, are definitely something that interests me a lot.”

Among his classmates and collaborators was Megan Benevides, a 20-year-old senior who is also interested in advertising as a career. Ms. Benevides worked on the text-messaging part of the campaign, which she says engaged her “passion for English and poetry and communications.” She likened the text messages to the six-word short story that Ernest Hemingway was said to have written on a bet: “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.” Ms. Benevides, a communications major with a concentration in photography, said the time she spent on the project “was perfect; it gave me a lot of direction."

“Marketing can get bad press for being shallow, for being materialistic,” she says. “This was a positive way to use our skills we’re learning in school.”

... The students who took part in the institute spoke to one another in conference calls before they met up in Washington in March to produce the campaign, which carries the theme “There’s no L.O.L. in H.I.V.” For those not hooked up to the grid, “L.O.L.” is computer-speak for “laugh out loud,” one of the many acronyms, abbreviations and shorthand expressions that are used in e-mail messages, instant messages, text messages and in composing the brief messages dubbed tweets on Twitter.
    
The campaign reflects the eclectic media usage of its target audience. In addition to television commercials, which Cable Positive will distribute to cable channels and operators of local cable systems, there are a Web site; presences on Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and YouTube; text messages for cell phones (text “nolol” to 61827); and print advertisements. The campaign features the students who created it, playing the parts of students who are misinformed, ignorant or in denial about H.I.V. and AIDS. They appear in a mock high school yearbook filled with portraits of class achievers, amended with telling remarks. One young man is “Most Likely to Succeed at transmitting H.I.V. to his partner because he never got tested.” A young woman is “Best Actress for her performance in ‘I Have AIDS and Told You I Didn’t.

Another young man is “Best Dressed except for when it comes to wearing a condom.” And another young woman is “Prom Queen of thinking you can only get H.I.V. if you’re gay.” The archetypes also include Class Clown (“thinking H.I.V. would never happen to him”), Mot Intelligent (“until she skipped her H.I.V. test”) and Most Popular (“until her partners found out they were infected”).

 

 

U.S. Senator John F. Kerry meets with TeenAIDS Executive Director Dr. John Chittick and PeerCorps student interns attending YAMI U in Washington.
From left to right:  Peter Keto, Dr. Chittick. Megan Benevides, Sen. Kerry, Chris Downs and Matt Hawkins.

 

 

 

 

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Some of the following articles have been translated into English:

English Translation:
April 29, 2006

Harvard Educator Visits Jordan In Order To Educate About AIDS

In a press conference that was held an the Ministry of Health, Dr. John B. Chittick, the Executive director of TeenAIDS – PeerCorps – who Is visiting Jordan by the invitation of King Abdullah the seconded in order to educate teenagers about the danger of AIDS – said “The recorded cases in the kingdom doesn’t exceed 500, which I s a small number compared with other countries, but at the same time this ratio could be increased because Jordan is so open toward globalization”.

He also praised the government concern about the disease especially with youth where the ratio of new infection among them is about 50% of the total cases in the world.

Chittick also signified the important role of both Islamic religion and Arabic culture in a addition of the leading role of the Ministry of Education which offered a special and office level of education. 

___________________

April 29, 2006

An American expert expects an increase in

AIDS in Jordan in the next ten years 

American expert in the field of education about AIDS, Dr. John B. Chittick appreciated the great concern of Jordan toward education by virtue and care of King Abdullah remarking the important role of education in facing many cultural and health problems.

Also he praised the invitation of King Abdullah to meet groups of teenagers ant to inform them of his hard efforts in educating and training youth to avoid being infected with this disease, Jordan is the 75th country that Dr. Chittick has visited, and his next station will be Sudan or Cyprus.

He said that he is concerned about teenagers mostly regarding the increase in the number of newly infected people from these groups, which reaches about 50% of total cases.  Chittick added “The recorded cases in the kingdom don’t exceed 500, which is a small number compared with other countries, but at the same time this ratio could be increased because Jordan is so open to globalization.”
On the other hand, Chittick said that he admires Islamic faith and the traditions and habits that forbids illegal sexual relations, which had a significant role in keeping low number of AIDS cases.

He also mentioned that he had a special meeting with Education Minister Dr. Khaled Tokan in which they agreed that there must be an internet website which offers enough information about the disease in Arabic.
_________________

April 29, 2006

Facing the disease starts by increasing the awareness

Islamic morals limited the prevalence of the disease

Dr. John B. Chittick-who is visiting Jordan by the invitation of King Abdullah the Second in order to educate teenagers about the danger of AIDS praised the conscious and educational level that the government offers about the disease to be a civilized center in this field.
He said in the press conference that was held in the Ministry of Health that the percentage of new HIV infection among youth increased from 5% of the total before 15 years to 50% nowadays, which became a serious global problem.

Chittick added, “Although the recorded cases in the Kingdom don’t exceed 500, which is a small number compared with other countries, but these statistics are considered to be old, and an increase in the number is expected unless the education process continues.”

He also signified the important role of both Islamic religion and Arabic culture in minimizing the possibility of being infected with AIDS through the barriers for sexual relations.

On the other hand, he showed gratification for the conscious level that he touched among the youth during meetings and tours that he carried out in Jordan however, he visited some universities in addition to Sokaina secondary school for girls and Raghadan secondary school for boys, where he assured that the direct and personal contact between young individuals has a significant role in passing clear messages about the disease, and he insisted that these messages must reach every single person including mothers in order to popularize this awareness.

Finally, he pointed out that a website is about to be released in order to educate youth about AIDS, and the information will be available in twenty languages including Arabic by July, considering the traditions and habits of different counties.

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December 10th, 2006
FITCHBURG— Youth volunteers from more than 65 countries came together via an interactive Webcast and satellite TV uplink to focus on educating young people about HIV/AIDS prevention.

According to a press release, the following happened:

Sponsored by TeenAIDS-PeerCorps, a nonprofit organization in Fitchburg, thousands of young people organized AIDS awareness events in their local communities to help their peers learn how to avoid HIV on World AIDS Day, held Dec. 1 and 2.


John Chittick, executive director of TeenAIDS-PeerCorps, organized the event with the assistance of hundreds of area teens, institutions and interested adults. MTV International’s “Staying Alive” Campaign helped promote the two-day event.

This Internet event was the first worldwide Web cast for teens on AIDS ever held. The Web cast was filmed by Fitchburg Access TV (FATV) under the direction of Mark Rocheleau and David Svens with eight volunteers operating the cameras and the production.

Additionally, radio station WEIM did a live broadcast on the Friday evening show “The Open Mike with Ray C” that was audiostreamed globally, a first for the local station and Ray Chalifoux. WEIM’s owner Bill Macek and station manager Ben Parker were key players.

“This unique cyberspace event is the prototype of how youth will be educated on a global scale from now on,” said Mr. Chittick. “From the grass roots up, youth will share their activities with the world. However, this innovative Internet event was made possible with the donated assistance of many local people and businesses.”

The Fay Club, and its manager, Janelle McEachern, hosted the Friday night portion of the Web cast that also served as a fundraiser to defray the costs of the worldwide Web cast.

“What was truly amazing was the generosity of local donors because without their help, we could not have done this amazing charitable feat, said Mr. Chittick, who runs the nonprofit charity. “They deserve recognition and the community’s thanks.”

He mentioned the local restaurants and businesses who donated, including Babineau Insurance Adjency, The Harley House, Bootleggers, Grillicious, Stonehaven, Ixtapa Cantina, Jenkins Inn, Dutch Kitchen and Bake Shop, Sean Patrick, The Daily Bagel, Thai Lotus Restaurant, Craine Travel, Roux Travel, Slattery’s, DeBonis and Davin Florists, Ritter Florists, Shack’s Clothing, Victorian House, Natural Drugstore, Gazebo Restaurant at Four Points, Joseph’s Bistro and Pub, Gomes Liquors, Country Pizza, Jay’s Liquor, Pizza Hut, Pepsi-Cola, D’Angelo’s, Papa John’s, Minuteman Press, Aubuchon Hardware and CinemaWorld.

All eight hours of the FATV Web cast, and two hours of the radio broadcast are archived at TeenAIDS’ Web site: www.teenaids.org.

TeenAIDS-PeerCorps is a privately supported, 501(c) 3 organization that accepts tax-deductible donations to pay for its educational programs. For more information please visit www.teenaids.org or call the office at (978) 665-9383.