CARIBBEAN BROADCASTERS ENCOURAGE HIV TESTING WITH A NEW SET OF LIVE UP PUBLIC SERVICE MESSAGES
New PSAs Part of a Multi-Platform Campaign to Encourage Young People to Get Tested Together
June 25, 2007, KINGSTON – LIVE UP: Love. Protect. Respect – the first pan-Caribbean effort led by broadcasters to inspire and empower young people to combat HIV/AIDS – launched today a new series of television and radio public service ads (PSAs) to promote HIV testing. LIVE UP is the multi-platform public education campaign of the Caribbean Broadcast Media Partnership on HIV/AIDS (CBMP), a growing coalition of over 40 leading Caribbean media houses from 23 countries committed to expanding HIV/AIDS-related programming and public education activities across the Caribbean.
By encouraging audiences to have open and honest conversations about HIV testing, the new TV and radio ads, Roger’s Date and Danielle’s Date, seek to counter the silence, stigma and discrimination surrounding HIV/AIDS. The PSAs tell the story of a young couple – one spot from Roger’s perspective and the other from Danielle’s – as they prepare to get an HIV test at a local clinic. The spots end with the tag: “Make your next date special. Get an HIV test together.” The Trinidad & Tobago based advertising firm, Inglefield Ogilvy and Mather Caribbean Limited, was contracted by the CBMP to help develop and produce the PSAs.
In conjunction with this new set of PSAs, the campaign’s dedicated consumer website – www.iLIVEUP.com – has been refreshed with expanded information about HIV testing and links to local health and testing resources. The site also provides specific suggestions and links for young people who want to become more active within their community’s response to HIV/AIDS.
“By focusing our message on HIV testing, LIVE UP is motivating open and honest conversations among young people about the importance of knowing their HIV status. In order to better prevent the spread of HIV and help link people to the care they need, HIV testing should be seen as a more routine part of our lives and our heath care,” said CBMP Steering Committee Chair, Dr. Allyson Leacock. “The CBMP continues to make great strides, providing unique and powerful content to its members, which helps to encourage public discourse on important issues related to HIV/AIDS.”
In addition to its new LIVE UP television and radio spots, the CBMP will also debut this week new television and radio PSAs featuring Jamie Foxx, Queen Latifah, and National Basketball Association (NBA) players that also focus attention on the importance of HIV testing. These PSAs, developed by the NBA, HBO, the Global Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GBC), and the Kaiser Family Foundation, drive audiences to the LIVE UP website (ww.iliveup.com) for more information about HIV and local testing resources in the Caribbean.
As part of its ongoing effort to provide new and right-free HIV/AIDS-related programming to broadcasters, the CBMP is also making available to media houses across the region a variety of rights-free programming, including: Think HIV: This is Me, a user generated show in which young people speak about how their generation has been impacted by HIV/AIDS (produced by MTV, in partnership with the Kaiser Family Foundation); Portrait of a Plague, a radio special featuring seven poignant stories about HIV awareness (produced by Hearing Voices); the National Public Radio news segment Life Support, that features Oscar-nominated Queen Latifah who stars in a new HBO film that explores AIDS in the Black community; and a variety of newsmaker interviews with public health officials, among other content. All of this re-purposed programming, which will be broadcast across the Caribbean throughout the Summer, reinforces and complements the HIV testing messages in the new LIVE UP PSAs.
HIV testing is an important part of prevention and treatment efforts. Studies show that those who learn they are HIV positive modify their behavior to reduce the risk of HIV transmission. Early knowledge of HIV status is also important for linking those with HIV to medical care and services that can reduce morbidity and mortality and improve quality of life. The Caribbean is the region most affected by HIV/AIDS in this hemisphere, and is second only to sub-Saharan Africa in terms of HIV prevalence. AIDS is a leading cause of death among adults (ages 15-44) in the Caribbean, and 250,000 of the region’s residents are living with HIV or AIDS. Half of those are women, and a third are young people between the ages of 15-24.
Earlier this year, in conjunction with the opening of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2007, the CBMP launched its first set of LIVE UP spots and informational materials. The historic, multiyear campaign employs positive, inspirational messages to encourage audiences across the Caribbean, especially young people, to better understand their HIV risk and take personal action in response.
ABOUT THE CBMP
The Caribbean Broadcast Media Partnership on HIV/AIDS (CBMP) unites 43 top broadcasters from 23 countries in the region’s first coordinated media response to the pandemic. The Partnership creates a structured framework for sharing information and resources among broadcasters that significantly expands HIV/AIDS-related programming and public education activities across the Caribbean. Member broadcasters deliver HIV/AIDS information across a variety of platforms and formats, including targeted public service announcements (PSAs), entertainment programming, news and public affairs programming, and online resources.
The CBMP was launched in May 2006 at a regional summit of media executives on HIV/AIDS, organized by the Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation, the Caribbean Broadcasting Union, and the Kaiser Family Foundation. The CBMP is overseen by a Steering Committee of broadcast executives representing a diverse constituency of media houses from Barbados, Grenada, St. Vincent & Grenadines, Trinidad & Tobago, Jamaica, Belize, and regional organizations Caribbean Media Corporation and Caribbean Broadcasting Union, with strategic and technical guidance and production support from Kaiser. The Ford Foundation and the Elton John AIDS Foundation provide additional financial support to underwrite production of campaign materials and informational resources. For more information, visit http://www.cbmphiv.org .
###
