Accelerating Health Impact Through Unconventional Communication Strategy

High HIV/AIDS prevalence country - generalized epidemic at 25%. Rate of behavior change is inadequate to achieve national goals.

PRISM found that despite high awareness and knowledge of transmission, low self risk perceptions, high degree of denial (low identification and ‘Can’t happen to me’ syndrome) and high stigma associated with the disease were acting as the main barriers to behavior change. PRISM concluded the importance of repositioning HIV/AIDS from a health disease to a Strategic issue, demystifying it, making it part of daily life, bringing it closer to one‘s life and daily chores or Strategic conversation – resulting in improved self risk /threat perception.

PRISM recommended use of unconventional communication format to generate empathy with the problem and start relating to it. Daily audio and AV Serial format was recommended to educate mass on HIV/AIDS through identifiable and relatable characters, storyline that deals in Strategic and family issues without making it a HIV/AIDS story line yet addressing the key issues. A daily TV soap was conceived, designed, produced and telecast.

Overnight it became the most popular TV program with The World Bank report attributing the country’s HIV incidence drop in the following 3 years to the TV serial as a major factor contributing to high self risk perceptions among youth and inducing significant increase in HIV testing, correct and consistent condom use, reduction in multiple partnership and delayed debut of sex among youth.