Animated HIV ads target the young

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Scrutinize, comprising seven television adverts, directed by Cal Bruns and voiced by comedian Joey Rasdien, was a finalist in the category for education, scientific or industrial films at the animation festival, held in Annecy.

It has also been nominated as a finalist in the 2009 Khuza Awards, which are selected by South Africans aged between eight and 22. The awards function, presented by Marketing Mix, will take place in Johannesburg on 24 June 2009.

The Scrutinize campaign - created in partnership with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the US President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, Johns Hopkins Health and Education in South Africa (JHHESA), the Levi's Red for Life initiative and Matchboxology - aims to encourage and equip young people to take responsibility for their behaviour to reduce their risk of HIV infection.

The concept

The concept behind the campaign, which celebrated its first anniversary on 16 June, with these two accolades, is a series of short animated commercials that depict township characters who illustrate daily life encounters that place young people at risk of contracting HIV. The series was animated by Jill Slabbert with music by The Rudimentals.

Scrutinize has also undertaken a campus outreach campaign with DramAidE at 10 disadvantaged higher education institutions around the country. More than 2 000 youth facilitators have been trained in the use of the Scrutinize materials and are spreading the Scrutinize message even further through their communities.

"Scrutinize's winning formula is that it packages powerful research by the HSRC and CADRE, with excellent creative insight by Matchboxology and incredible social mobilisation by DramAidE and NGOs across the country," says Patrick Coleman, MD of Johns Hopkins Health and Education in South Africa.

Using slang and colloquialisms to which the young can relate, the “animerts” provide talking points or insights that enable young people to “scrutinize” their behaviours and beliefs. They are used in communities to stimulate discussions on topics such as multiple and concurrent partners; alcohol, sex and HIV; transactional intergenerational sex; condom use; and multiple partners.

The lead character in these television adverts is Victor, a taxi driver, voiced by Rasdien. Other characters include a shebeen queen, a sugar daddy, a young girl, a businessman and a teenage boy. HIV is personified as a ninja character, which pops up in various situations facing the characters.

Depicts real life, changes attitudes

Feedback has been positive, with youngsters reporting changes in their sexual behaviour - such as using condoms and restricting their number of sexual partners - after seeing the adverts.

Said one Evaton teenager of the animert that depicts a parody of an infomercial, where children discover the dubious prizes they can win when they trade sex for goodies: "I like it because it shows things that are happening in real life. I'm HIV positive and it's all because [of] a sugar daddy, and my baby of seven months, she's also infected and the sugar daddy who infected me he's nowhere to be found."

Another commented: "Oh yes, it changed my mind and my bad attitude towards girls. I don't think I can go on and have sex without a condom anymore. I'm now a one-woman man 'cause HIV virus has got no excuse when it attacks."

According to the Human Sciences Research Council's third national HIV prevalence, incidence and communication survey, published earlier in June, while HIV awareness and education programmes are increasingly reaching the population, intergenerational sex has increased among female teenagers, which exposes them to older men with higher HIV prevalence and places them at higher risk of contracting HIV.

This, and other key findings, such as respondents reporting an increase in the number of sexual partners they have, makes Scrutinize's method and messages that much more critical. The campaign is taking part in the second National Communication Survey, which will measure the impact of various communication campaigns.