Last Tuesday marked the 20th anniversary of the Centers for Disease Control's (CDC) first report about the AIDS virus, a discovery that would signal the beginning of one of the
worst public health crises in modern times. More than 22 million people worldwide have succumbed to AIDS since 1981 and 36 million more are diagnosed as HIV-positive. But just as
new strains of the virus are becoming impervious to the latest crop of drug treatments, so too, are two decades worth of prevention messages upon America's youth. These are
falling on deaf ears and failing to influence those at risk.
The face of AIDS has changed. A June 4 cover story in Newsweek reports that "among 13- to 19-year olds, 64% of HIV-positives are female." The CDC's latest numbers indicate
resurgence in HIV infections among young, gay men, with disturbing increases found in the African-American community. Among black men who have sex with other men, the annual rate
of new infection is 14.7%, compared with 3.5% among Hispanics and 2.5% among whites.
Darlene Washington, director of the disease prevention education division of the American Red Cross, observes that many black and Latino men who engage in same-sex behavior
don't identify themselves as "gay" due to cultural taboos. As such, AIDS prevention messages channeled through traditional gay media often fail to reach population segments most
at risk.
Overcoming ignorance about AIDS is hardly the biggest communications hurdle, either. Most Americans (minorities included) are well aware of the risks but ignore them.
"Knowledge alone has never been the answer," says Melissa Shepherd, director of the office of communications for the CDC's National Center for HIV, STD and Tuberculosis
Prevention. "There has always been a disconnect between knowledge and actual behavior. This is true with other diseases as well," she adds. "The knowledge that smoking causes lung
cancer often is not enough to get people to stop smoking. People need more to feel compelled to change."
Condom usage skyrocketed in the '80s and early '90s as thousands of Americans watched their friends and loved ones die. Now, experts note with some irony, the success of "the
cocktail" has led to an upswing in unsafe sex, given that there's much less carnage on display.
Today's advocates are challenged to communicate the ongoing problem in the absence of visible drama, according to Tom Schafer, a spokesman for the Illinois Department of Public
Health. "As successful as multiple drug therapies have been in prolonging people's lives, it has cost us in the form of people [becoming] complacent," he says. "Many now believe
HIV is more of a chronic disease that can be treated."
But still there is no cure and the average drug regimen costs more than $15,000 annually -- an option not available to growing ranks of infected individuals who live in
poverty.
An Evolving Epidemic
Much has changed since 1988 when Ogilvy PR first joined with the CDC to launch "America Responds to AIDS," a campaign, that included a direct mail piece from Surgeon General C.
Everett Koop to every U.S. household. Today, scores of PR firms (Ogilvy still among them) and individual consultants engage locally in the incremental quest to change a nation's
most private behaviors.
Tanya Hilleary, an online PR consultant to CDC, spends her days lurking in gay chat rooms and surfing porn sites to report back on new and often disturbing trends such as
"conversion parties" - events during which HIV-positive men intentionally infect men who are negative. Hilleary, president of Riverbyte Communications in Reston, Va., serves as
CDC's online "eyes and ears," researching the raunchy stuff that the government agency's own internal staffers can't access due to firewalls.
Part two of Hilleary's gig involves dishing CDC statistics onto other Web sites where high-risk readers are likely to browse. "We're positioning content on related sites from
Gay.com to WebMD to Yahoo! and everything in between," she says. "It's an effective way for CDC to spread its medical information to audiences that wouldn't necessarily visit a
government site for health information."
Beyond the Web, grassroots campaigns target specific at-risk populations to make headway in local communities. The American Red Cross offers training, workbooks and leadership
guides for teachers, church youth group leaders and community volunteers who work with teens. Guided imagery exercises help kids and urban youth in particular to envision a
positive future beyond the reality of their present lives.
"Our approach to prevention is based on what motivates people and how to leverage those motivations to change their actions," explains Washington. With teens, it often means
counteracting low self-esteem and fatalism that leads to risky sexual encounters.
The AIDS Challenge
According to Marty Algaze, director of communications for Gay Men's Health Crisis in New York, riveting attention back to AIDS in the midst of current breaking news is the
toughest challenge. "It's hard to get the media to cover [AIDS issues] domestically unless we have an anniversary or someone famous dies," he says. Otherwise, AIDS is old news.
Unlike products and corporate brands, which readily reinvent their messaging strategies to jive with the zeitgeist du jour, the AIDS message simply can't change. Until there's a
vaccine, it's all about prevention. A remarkably simple solution that's remarkably difficult to sell.
What can the communications industry do to address the AIDS crisis? Wade Hyde, co-president of the Dallas-based PR firm Brandon Hyde, suggests that PR types with ties to the
entertainment industry would do well to encourage Hollywood to exert more influence. "Ever since 'Ellen' was on TV there has been gay assertion on network television but the topic
of AIDS has never been addressed," says Hyde, who has been HIV-positive since 1985. He cites "Will and Grace" as a prime example of a show that could readily address AIDS issues,
but hasn't. Even Showtime's hit "Queer as Folk," which depicts gay culture in Pittsburgh, fails to include characters who are HIV-positive. "The entertainment community needs to
reinvest in HIV and AIDS awareness - especially in [shows] dealing with sexualized issues," he says.
(Melissa Shepherd, CDC, 404/639-8895; Tanya Hilleary, Riverbyte Communications,
703/476-5679; Darlene Washington, American Red Cross, 202/639-3591; Tom Schafer,
Illinois Department of Public Health, 217/782-5750; Marty Algaze, Gay Men's
Health Crisis, 212/367-1210; Wade Hyde, Brandon Hyde, 214/467-3400)
Agencies and AIDS
PR firms working with AIDS advocacy organizations and/or pharmaceutical manufacturers of AIDS management therapies:
- Bragman Nyman Caferelli
- Chandler Chicco Agency
- Dallabrida & Associates
- Fenton Communications.
- Golin/Harris
- Ogilvy PR Worldwide
- SCIENS International
- Fleishman-Hillard International
How might the PR industry influence the current AIDS debate? Send your thoughts to Contributing Editor, Jenny Sullivan at [email protected].