Sexual & Reproductive Health | ||
India: “What Kind of Man Are You?” | ||
“What kind of man are you?” - A national campaign on HIV/AIDS released by Breakthrough for the first time directly asks men to wear condoms to protect their wives from the infection. 2 million women in India are infected with HIV/AIDS—and most of them have contracted it from their husbands. Breakthrough’s SMS HIV/AIDS helpline 7333 is answering queries related to HIV/AIDS on a daily bases. From methods of preventing HIV/AIDS to negotiating relationships – the questions have reached over 4000. For the first time SMS technology is also being used as a HIV/AIDS helpline in India. Crossword – a national bookstore chain joins hands to spread the message “What kind of man are you?’. Bookmarks and calling-cards with helpline numbers and messages asking men to wear condoms to protect their wives from HIV/AIDS hit stores in Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Kolkata and Chennai. “What kind of man are you?” campaign is now on the radio waves. How to discuss condoms with your partner... get talking about sex ... radio skits have been created specifically to catalyze dialogue around HIV/AIDS and negotiating safe sex between men and women. Roll out In May, 2005, Breakthrough launched its national campaign highlighting women’s vulnerability to HIV/AIDS. Created by adverting agency McCann Erickson in seven languages -Hindi, English, Tamil, Telegu, Bangla, Kannada and Marathi, the campaign has reached millions across India, promoting gender equality and calling for male accountability and responsibility for checking the spread of the disease. To increase the reach and impact of our human rights message, Breakthrough elicited the help of a team of luminaries in the media and entertainment world. The campaign itself was sensitively created by ad guru Prasoon Joshi, who personally penned the lyrical prose. Mandira Bedi and Samir Soni leant their star power to advance the cause, not only as the stars of Maati, (Breakthrough’s music video set to the vocals of Shubha Mudgal), but also as media spokespersons who advocated for the rights of women in numerous press conferences across the country. The Launch...The campaign lunched with five press conferences in Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Bangalore and Kolkata.. “Wives ask husbands to wear a condom” “A campaign to give voice to HIV infected women”, “Do you care for your sweetheart?” --city after city, over 162 articles appeared in the national and regional press and every main line television channel featured the campaign, thus centre-staging the issue of a husband’s responsibility to protect his wife from the infection. To maximize reach to a varied audience, we utilized a variety of media channels:
The campaign was truly multimedia in every sense as the power of the internet was used effectively too. Rediff.com, one of the most popular portals with traffic well into the millions, hosted a micro site for the campaign with streaming videos of the television spots and music video. Rediff.com also supports Breakthrough’s anonymous SMS query hotline (SMS 7333)—the first of its kind in India--which has sensitively fielded thousands of question on HIV/AIDS, prevention, STD’s, and sexuality. As successful communication should, “What Kind of Man Are You?” has taken on a life of its own-- appearing in the most unexpected places. Amazingly the “What kind of man are you?” campaign has found its way into the board game version of the popular quiz show “Kaun Banega Karorpati” hosted by Amitabh Bachcahn on Star Plus! In order to better understand the other ways in which “What Kind of Man Are You?” is influencing and impacting our audience, we have commissioned ORG, a division of AC Nielson, to conduct an impact assessment of the campaign, a report of which will be available in the beginning of 2006. Even as the media excitement around the campaign continues, our team of facilitators has been effectively integrating the media products into our human rights trainings, including the Levi Strauss HIV/AIDS Peer Facilitator Program, implemented by Breakthrough and Naz. In addition, Breakthrough has teamed up with UNIFEM’s Charka project to bring the “What Kind of Man Are You?” media to six districts throughout India, where we will work with local partners to build their capacity to use media as an advocacy strategy, creating a local dissemination strategy for “What Kind of Man Are You?” in each district. |