loveLife launches new HIV campaign

Faithfulness, protection and testing are some of the issues taken up by loveLife's new billboard campaign in the fight against HIV infection.

Launched on Wednesday, the predominantly black and white billboards will start going up around the country over the next few weeks. The messages to be flighted include "No 'til we know", "Prove your love, protect me" and "If you aren't talking to your child about sex, who is?"

loveLife chief executive David Harrison said the new messages were shifting away from the notion that changing behaviour is simply about telling young people what to do. "Our billboards are deliberately provocative to make them stand out from all the clutter about HIV and AIDS."

He added that the time had come to really start grappling with sexual dynamics and expectations in relationships.

In recent times, loveLife has come in for strong criticism by various organisations and academics who have slammed its messages, saying they are "frustratingly obscure and all-too-clever". In addition, they have criticised the organisation for shying away from mentioning HIV on any of its billboards.

In fact, this year's campaign, titled HIV - Face It, is the first time in the organisation's history that "HIV" has been used on a billboard. Harrison said the decision to have "sharper, stronger and more direct" messages which mentioned HIV stemmed from loveLife's youth focus groups, which felt there needed to be a direct statement about the virus.

He added that a finding by recent surveys, showing that about two-thirds of 15- to 25-year-olds infected with HIV do not think they are at risk of HIV infection, also prompted the organisation to find ways to target these individuals - many of whom did not know they were infected.

"We are at a turning point in the epidemic where we are starting to see stabilisation in prevalence among young people. Breaking the cycle of HIV infection means coming face to face with your own personal risk and making sure your behaviour protects you," Harrison said.

He hoped the new messages would not receive the same negative response as previous campaigns, saying the epidemic "is too huge to be fighting among ourselves". loveLife had been engaging with other groups on communication strategies, and believed that because of this engagement, "the days of catfights and name-calling are over".

"There is a consensus that simple messaging is not enough and that communication strategies and campaigns need to be cognisant of the pressures and social norms that affect infection rates."

The billboards are part of loveLife's sustained multi-media campaign designed specifically to keep the attention of young people and to get them involved in loveLife's extensive countrywide services. They also act as a bridge promoting loveLife's toll-free youth counselling service, thethajunction, which handles more than 300 000 calls a month.