Chicago Tribune - January 24, 2003
Vincent J. Schodolski, Tribune national correspondent

These public service announcements are part of a $120 million, yearlong HIV/AIDS awareness campaign launched this month as a result of cooperation between one of the nation's leading research organizations and one of the country's largest media companies.

Target audience

Aimed at those most at risk of infection in the U.S.--young people in general and African-Americans and Hispanics in particular, and men who engage in sex with other men--the advertisements and programming are designed to educate in an appealing, entertaining way.

"The kids are reacting well because it is information they are interested in," said Matt James, senior vice president at the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, a health and public policy research organization based in Menlo Park.

The foundation formed a partnership with Viacom, which agreed to air the public service announcements and write HIV/AIDS-related comedy or drama into television series.

Kaiser provided Viacom with detailed information on the HIV/AIDS crisis, and the information was passed on to various units of the media conglomerate for the production of the ads and program segments.

"We're not table bangers," said James, discussing the way Kaiser worked with Viacom. "We let writers make it entertaining, but we want to deliver the information."

49 ads to air

The first public service announcements in the KNOW HIV/AIDS campaign started airing this month. In all, 49 ads target different groups.

They will air on the CBS and UPN networks and 200 affiliates around the country, and on cable outlets MTV, BET, VH1, Nick at Nite, Nickelodeon, Showtime and Comedy Central, among others. Print ads, billboards and Internet postings also are planned. HIV/AIDS material will be written into episodes of "Girlfriends," "Half & Half," "One on One," "Queer as Folk" and other programs.

James said Viacom writers, actors and producers quickly warmed to the idea once the project was presented to them.

"The chance to take on something that has affected them through their family, friends and loved ones--they get the chance to sell soft drinks and potato chips, but this is something very different," he said.

Those involved said the education provided by Kaiser inspired plot lines now on the air.

"One of the most important things we hit on without hitting it too hard was the fact that people are still out there having unprotected sex," said Yvette Bowser, executive producer of "Half & Half," a series about two half-sisters getting to know each other after having been raised separately.

The episode of "Half & Half " dealing with HIV/AIDS has the character Spencer, played by actor Chico Benymon, having unprotected sex with an old friend in town for a business meeting. When he tells Mona, played by Rachel True, that his old friend thinks she is pregnant as a result of his encounter with her, Mona persuades the reluctant Spencer to have a blood test even when he finds out his friend is not pregnant.

"Any time you do a program where you have young people involved you have to address these concerns," Bowser said. "HIV and AIDS have been in the forefront since Magic Johnson made his announcement in the early '90s."

Others said they were shocked by some of the information that the Kaiser foundation gave them.

'No idea'

"We had no idea that this virus was as big as it is," said Eunetta Boone, executive producer of "One on One," a program broadcast on UPN. "We thought that we had a handle on it in this country."

The program's episode on HIV/AIDS dealt with the issue through the main character, the womanizing Flex

The character, played by actor Flex Alexander, wants to have sex with his girlfriend but she demands that he first get an HIV test. Although he initially resists, he does have the test.

"We wanted to say here is this player who has never been tested," Boone said. "The challenge was to [present factual information] and still entertain and still be funny."

Imara Jones, director of the initiative at Viacom, said that earlier cooperation between Kaiser and MTV led to the decision to expand HIV/AIDS awareness projects.

Viacom understood that much of its programming attracted the people Kaiser wanted to reach: "Namely, people under 25, African-Americans, Hispanics, women and homosexual men," he said.

Although it is difficult to measure the impact of the campaign, James, of the Kaiser Foundation, said that an 800-number information line set up in 1998 when cooperation with BET began has received more than a million calls.

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