International Journal of Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Marketing

Int. J. Nonprofit Volunt. Sect. Mark. 15: 91–103 (2010)

Published online 3 May 2009 in Wiley InterScience
(www.interscience.wiley.com) DOI: 10.1002/nvsm.366

Branding HIV/AIDS communication:

the social marketing campaigns of
MTV and Viacom
Cheryl Martens*
School of Creative Enterprise, London College of Communication, University of the Arts
London, UK

Based on an ethnographic study of the production and reception of HIV/AIDS public

service campaigns by MTV and Viacom, this paper examines the role of branding in HIV/
AIDS education promotion. A main premise of the paper is that audiences for HIV/AIDS
social marketing campaigns are now less addressed in terms of the classic HIV/AIDS
prevention categories of ‘general public’ and ‘risk groups’ and are increasingly viewed as
‘market segments’ implicated in the campaigns in relation to the techniques of branding.
Drawing on examples from research conducted amongst audiences in the North of
England, the findings highlight the differing audience understandings of the branded
consumer objects and icons of HIV awareness. Using a cultural materialist perspective,
concerned with the relationship between the campaigns and social relations, this paper
examines the process of corporate-sponsored HIV/AIDS campaigns. The findings under-
score how social marketing campaigns are increasingly being related to as branded
media objects and icons, closely tied to people’s material experience and understandings
of the aesthetics framing these branded objects and icons. The paper argues that
identification and engagement with the campaigns is most evident amongst participants
who shared the consumer values and the marketing discourses used by marketing
managers and producers of the public service announcements.
Copyright # 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Introduction (1997), who defines it as the applied use of

Since Kotler and Zaltman (1971) first coined the
term ‘social marketing’ to refer to the use of
marketing concepts to address social and health
problems, several variations of this definition
have been offered. The term as it is used in this
paper draws on the definition of Andreasen
*Correspondence to: Cheryl Martens, School of Creative
Enterprise, London College of Communication, Univer-
sity of the Arts London, Elephant and Castle London, SE1
6SB, UK.
E-mail: c.martens@lcc.arts.ac.uk
commercial marketing concepts to effect
voluntary behaviour change amongst target
audiences in order to improve their personal
welfare and society. However, rather than
applying a framework of social marketing
principles, this paper seeks to investigate how
social marketing may be seen from a cultural
materialist perspective, which investigates the
campaigns as an interactive, relational process
through which individuals come to understand
themselves and respond to the campaigns.

Copyright # 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Int. J. Nonprofit Volunt. Sect. Mark., February 2010
DOI: 10.1002/nvsm
92
Recent scholarship concerning the social
marketing of HIV/AIDS education focuses
much attention on measuring the reach and
impact of campaigns on particular audiences in
specific countries (Eloundou-Enyegue et al.,
2005; Lombardo and Léger, 2007; Van Rossem
and Meekers, 2007). Methodologically, a wide
range of methods to evaluate the success of
HIV/AIDS education campaigns have been
used; however, there is a privileging of more
experimental, and randomised control trials in
much of the literature (cf. Oakley and Full-
erton, 1996; O’Leary et al., 1997). Whilst many
studies acknowledge HIV/AIDS education
within the realm of social marketing, there
has been very little discussion of HIV/AIDS
campaigns in relation to the macro environ-
ment of consumer culture and marketing,
which includes the branding and aestheticisa-
tion that currently frames people’s interactions
with campaigns.
In terms of methodological approaches to
evaluating campaigns, Van de Ven and Aggleton
(1998) argue strongly against the prevailing
orthodoxy of HIV/AIDS education evaluation
that places experimental approaches based in
the biosocial sciences as the ‘gold standard’.
They have identified six different methodologi-
cal models used to evaluate campaigns: (1) the
objectives model, which measures the target
group in relation to campaign objectives; (2)
the self-study model, based on staff evaluation
of programmes; (3) the illumination model,
which seeks to describe and gather information
for stakeholders by presenting the various
opinions of audience members; (4) decision
making models, based on rational choice
theories; (5) experimental approaches, which
seek to evaluate cause and effect relationships
and (6) goal free evaluation, which assesses the
outcomes of HIV/AIDS education, irrespective
of the educational goals. In their analysis, they
argue with others in the field (i.e. Coates et al.,
1996) that it is only through a variety of research
methods and approaches, often in combination
with each other at multiple levels that HIV/
AIDS education success can be measured.
The research presented here supports this
mixed methods perspective. It does not
Copyright # 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Int. J. Nonprofit Volunt. Sect. Mark., February 2010
Cheryl Martens
attempt, however, to provide a definitive
evaluation of the HIV/AIDS education cam-
paigns of MTV and Viacom. Given the greater
involvement of corporations in the leadership,
implementation and aestheticisation of HIV/
AIDS campaigns, and the dearth of qualitative
research examining the branding of HIV/AIDS
communication as an interactive and dynamic
process, this paper seeks to explore the
cultural materiality and the dynamics of the
social marketing of HIV/AIDS education. To do
so, it takes as a case study the branded
campaigns created by global media leaders
MTV and Viacom, examining audience under-
standings of these branded consumer encoun-
ters.
The public service HIV/AIDS education
campaigns of MTV International (Staying
Alive1) and parent company Viacom2 (KNOW
HIV/AIDS, 2003–20063) have been selected
due to the ubiquity of the campaigns and the
global media leadership role of these corpor-
ations in processes such as the Global Media
AIDS initiative4. The campaigns are presented
1
The Staying Alive Campaign was first launched in 1998
and became the world’s largest, long-term global media
initiative targeted to youth with the support of parent
company, Viacom in 2002. MTV, the Kaiser Family
Foundation, and Family Health International have pro-
duced public service announcements (PSAs) for the
Staying Alive campaign for distribution in more than
164 countries. For further details of MTV’s partnerships,
see www.staying-alive.org.
2
In 2005, Viacom divided its holdings into two compa-
nies, Viacom and CBS Corporation, two years into the
KNOW/HIV AIDS Campaign. Both corporations actively
sponsor and produce HIV/AIDS education programming.
References to Viacom in this text include CBS Corpor-
ation’s participation in this initiative.
3
The KNOW HIV/AIDS prevention initiative was spon-
sored by Viacom and CBS Corporation 2003-2006 in
partnership with the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.
The initiative produced 123 messages placed on CBS and
Viacom television, radio and outdoor properties. The
media value of the campaign was estimated by Viacom
at USD $600. For further information about the initiative
see www.kff.org.
4
The Global Media AIDS Initiative (GMAI) was launched
at the United Nations in 2004 by Kaiser Family Founda-
tion and UNAIDS at a meeting with global media execu-
tives and now has more than 300 corporate media
members. Viacom was the initiative’s first signatory
and Bill Roedy, President of MTV Networks International
was the GMAI’s first Chairman. For further information
see www.thegmai.org.
DOI: 10.1002/nvsm
Branding HIV/AIDS communication
not only across the wide range their media
properties including television, digital and
outdoor advertising, but also beyond their
broadcasting areas, by third party broadcasters
offered on a rights free basis. As a result, these
initiatives, produced in collaboration with non-
governmental and intergovernmental partners,
such as UNAIDS reach an estimated two thirds
of the world’s television viewers (Family
Health International, 2003).
Background
The involvement of private corporations in
social marketing HIV/AIDS education pro-
motion now spans three decades, yet social
marketing strategies of HIV/AIDS prevention
have only begun the concerted ‘selling’ of HIV
education in relation to aesthetic information
and values at the global level since the late
1990s. This is particularly evident in corporate-
led HIV/AIDS campaigns such as MTV’s Staying
Alive and Viacom’s Know HIV/AIDS cam-
paigns, which now appear across their media
platforms. Some programming, such as the
World AIDS day programming of MTV now has a
television reach of two thirds of the world’s
population. The approach of selling and
aestheticising HIV/AIDS education; however,
can be increasingly seen in the approaches of
governmental and non-governmental actors,
particularly in the United States. Referring to
the US context in 1998, the former executive
director of the Harvard AIDS Institute argues
that:
Preaching abstinence wouldn’t sell many
Calvin Klein’s, and urging risk avoidance
wouldn’t sell many Nikes,[y]et abstinence
and risk avoidance are exactly how HIV
prevention is being sold to young people -
one of the groups at highest risk for
infection (Marlink in Byron, 1998).
With the aim of creating new strategies to
prevent HIV amongst young people, the
Harvard AIDS Institute and the Centre for
AIDS Prevention Studies launched Marketing
HIV Prevention (MHP) in 1997, the first
Copyright # 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Int. J. Nonprofit Volunt. Sect. Mark., February 2010
93
programme of its kind to centrally focus on
marketing expertise to raise awareness about
HIV. More recently the discourse of ‘selling’
HIV/AIDS education in aesthetic terms can be
seen to be entrenched in relation to how HIV/
AIDS prevention is now conducted. This can
be seen on a range of levels, from Community
Based Organisations (CBOs), to larger inter-
national non-governmental organisations and
the advertising agencies involved in the
production of campaigns. In a US Centre for
Disease Control (2000) study of community
based organisations, one CBO summed up HIV
education efforts as follows:
If we give them a good product, they’ll
come back for more. So we know who the
market is and what they want to buy, you
know, and then we sell it to them. . . We’re
selling self-esteem, we’re selling activism,
we’re selling hope for the future. . .we are
selling HIV prevention (CDC, 2000: 10).
Viewed as a product to be sold, the argument
being put forward is that if the prevention efforts
are packaged in an attractive enough manner, in
tune with people’s consumer values, not only
will messages be sold to them on a one-off basis,
they will seek out this information as part of their
lifestyle and ‘come back for more’ (Center for
Disease Control, 2000). Actor Richard Gere,
founder of the Heroes Project in India, which
works closely with Viacom and media corpor-
ations in India, similarly emphasises the selling
of HIV as an aesthetic object that needs to be
‘sexy’ and ‘alive’:
How do you sell HIV and make it sexy and
alive and interesting over and over and
over again? You’ve got to be creative about
it. And that was one of the reasons we had
our creative summit. It was talking about
exactly that issue, on keeping it alive for
the journalists and for the writer so they’re
still interested, they’re still open to this and
they’re creative but to feed more stories,
more possibilities, more angles, more
humour, more life, more human interests,
DOI: 10.1002/nvsm
94
not just facts. Facts are dead, can’t tell that
story anymore (Gere, 2005).
Gere’s perspective on selling and bringing
HIV ‘to life’ follows trends in the field of
mainstream marketing. Marketing consultant,
Gobe (2001), in his bestselling book
Emotional Branding, emphasises the signifi-
cance of engaging the senses and emotions of
consumers. Gobe argues that focussing on
people’s desire to transcend material satisfac-
tion and experience fulfilment enables market-
ers to tap into people’s aspirational drivers,
motivating their actions. Gere and Marlink’s
approaches to HIV/AIDS education concur
with Gobe’s perspective on emotional brand-
ing, conceptualising HIV/AIDS as a product
incorporating an aestheticised vision of how
this information should be packaged to reach
the senses and aspirations of the audience. In
addition, this perspective draws heavily on
rhetorical strategies by marketing managers in
reinforcing the little interrogated ideologies of
experiential marketing and ‘customer satisfac-
tion’ as documented Hackley’s (2003) critique
of marketing management texts and dis-
courses.
Seeking to move beyond ‘facts’, towards
aspirations, the advertising agency to Via-
com’s, 2004 ‘Knowing is Beautiful’ Cam-
paign, Crispin Porter þ Bogusky, embraces this
view. Using Gap style multicultural fashion
models, the campaign connects the promotion
of HIV testing with the marketing techniques
involved in fashion branding:
What if we made HIV testing seem cool?
What if we treated it like a fashion brand?
Instead of trying to scare people into getting
tested, what if we made it something they
actually aspire to (www.cpbgroup.com)?
This view of HIV testing and prevention—as
a product to be branded and an object to be
related to—is central to Viacom and MTV’s
conception of HIV/AIDS education promotion.
Crispin Porter þ Bogusky views and constructs
the promotion of the HIV antibody testing
for the ‘Knowing is Beautiful’ campaign
Copyright # 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Int. J. Nonprofit Volunt. Sect. Mark., February 2010
Cheryl Martens
as potentially ‘enhacing human intimacy’
(www.cpbgroup.com).
Research methodology
As discussed above, a lacunae in the social
marketing research of HIV/AIDS education
promotion exists with regard to examining
campaigns as branded consumer encounters.
Furthermore, the studies of the social market-
ing of HIV/AIDS campaigns have largely drawn
on quantitative methods, which tend to
narrow meanings into a few categories and
do not successfully address the subjective
meanings or fully capture the complexities
involved in understanding and interacting with
social marketing campaigns. The approach
adopted here is from an interpretivist perspect-
ive, whereby ‘meanings are varied and
multiple, leading the researcher to look for
the complexity of views’ (Cesswell, 2007:20)
rather than testing a specific theory or applying
a particular model, the purpose of this research
is to examine patterns of meaning.
In order to examine the dynamics of audience
interactions with the branding and aestheticisa-
tion of HIV/AIDS education messages, audience
responses were considered in relation to
prevailing images, discourses and beliefs preva-
lent in education campaigns. The research
presented here is based on the findings of six
focus groups and an in-depth interview sample
of focus group participants (N ¼ 38). These
results are presented as part of a wider
ethnographic research project of the pro-
duction and reception of MTV and Viacom
campaigns from 2004–2007, conducted in a city
in North East England.
The research strategy adopted a cultural
studies perspective, whereby media pro-
duction and reception are considered complex
processes of constant negotiation, of proces-
sing and reconstruction. Representations are
thus not merely copies of ‘reality’ but
incorporate social and culturally situated
understandings and feelings, as well as contra-
dictory meanings (Van Zoonen, 1994). Especi-
ally important to this perspective is that
production, texts and audiences cannot be
DOI: 10.1002/nvsm
Branding HIV/AIDS communication
analysed in isolation of one another, but rather
must be viewed as interlinked in the process of
meaning making. The campaigns presented
here were produced by Viacom and MTV
between 2004 and 2006. Specific case studies
of campaigns were selected in order to avoid
making generalised claims. The tool of visual
analysis was used and based around the
concept of ‘situating knowledges’ (Haraway,
1989), grounding the visual texts in local and
actual practices and experiences in examining
discourses and meanings.
By ‘situating knowledges’ in the case of the
visual and discursive analysis presented here,
the aim of this research aims to consider how
language, in its many modalities, simul-
taneously reflects and constructs the context
in which it is to be found. Furthermore,
following Lury (2004), this research also aims
to go beyond the analysis of semiotics and
discourse to explore how branded media
objects may be understood as a relational,
interactive media at the core of exchange
between producers and consumers.
In terms of sampling, the research was not
designed to uncover a uniform or predictable
reaction to media messages but to explore
discourses and forms of interactions in relation
to the campaigns and the brands. Statistical
representation was not therefore deemed to be
a determinant factor of the results (Bloor et al.,
2001). Nevertheless, the design sought to
include a diverse cross-section of social classes,
ethnicities and experiences in relation to HIV
awareness from across the city, representing
the wide range of geographical areas and socio
economic groups found within the parameters
of the city at the time of the study. The age
sample of the focus group interviewees was
initially determined on advice sought by key
informants from the local sexual health and
HIV support centres. Interviews with local
sexual health workers and MTV and Viacom
campaign coordinators emphasised that young
people between 14 and 25 years of age were
the main targets for the campaigns and current
sexual health work. However, in order to
address issues of race as well as include the
representation of people living with HIV, two
Copyright # 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Int. J. Nonprofit Volunt. Sect. Mark., February 2010
95
focus groups of services users and volunteers
at a local centre for HIV were also included,
which included individuals above the age of
twenty-five. Due to the personal nature of the
content, pre-existing groups were used so that
participants would feel more at ease in their
discussion. This would not have been possible
with the sample entirely focussed on youth
responses, due to the difficulty in accessing
groups of young people living with HIV within
the city. The final sample thus included six
focus groups. Four groups of young people
(15–23 years): one secondary school class
(16–17 years), one group of peer sexual health
educators (17–19 years), one group of young
men who were MTV viewers at a connexion
centre (aged 15–16), one group of female MTV
viewers (17–23 years) who worked at a local
cafe, and two groups of HIV support group
service users (27–52 years). For reasons of
confidentiality, all participants have been
given pseudonyms.
The focus group interviewing allowed for
the exploration of key issues and initial
responses to the campaigns through semi-
structured discussions in response to cam-
paign materials. The focus groups also pro-
vided insights into collective attitudes about
HIV campaigns5 and discourses around sexu-
ality and the media. The in-depth interviews
helped achieve triangulation, providing greater
reliability of responses by checking with
interviewees the themes that emerged from
the focus group discussions and also provided
the opportunity to explore recurrent themes in
greater depth over the space of several
months.
The data was analysed in three stages,
beginning with the analysis of all transcripts
by assigning index codes. The codes were
refined and new indexes were generated as
categories and sub-categories became evident.
After the initial coding was complete, the wider
contexts and prevalent discourses of the inter-
views and focus groups were examined. Major
themes and their relation to the geographic,
5
Campaign materials included outdoor and televised
PSAs, Staying Alive and Know HIV/AIDS brochures
and website content.
DOI: 10.1002/nvsm
96
cultural and socio economic contexts of
participants were considered in addition to
participant power dynamics within the focus
groups. Issues concerning gender, and ethnicity
and particular uses of discourses (or resistance
to them) became apparent at this stage. The final
stage of the analysis involved considering the
data in relation to the theoretical concerns of the
research and wider campaign data generated
through other methods, such as campaign
brochures and websites.
Results
Branded ‘mediascapes’: campaigns in
everyday life
I saw it! But I didn’t get it. (Tim, 42)
The above quote by Tim, a 42 year-old HIV
positive male, is an initial response to a Staying
Alive outdoor campaign which appeared on
the sides of buses in a city in Northern England
in 2004 (initially branded ‘Know HIV/AIDS,
Figure 1). Tim recounted having seen the
advert at the bus station, but he did not
consciously reflect on the meaning of the
message until he saw it again in the focus
group. Given the density of media messages
encountered by informants, messages in out-
door advertising and posters were usually
interacted with as objects in passing, like
billboards along the highway (Couldry, 2000).
A main theme to emerge was how audiences
read adverts—in modes of distraction—as
they go through their everyday lives. This was a
dominant theme across all of the focus groups.
Tim’s response that he saw the campaign
but ‘didn’t get it’ was echoed by secondary
Figure 1. ‘Knowledge in a Pill’ advert, Viacom and MTV
International, 2003–2005.
Copyright # 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Cheryl Martens
school students. Many recognised the Viacom/
Staying Alive brand but didn’t engage with the
meaning in the messages:
For me, I saw the advert on the side of the
bus, I just thought it was an advert to sell
drugs [referring to Knowledge in a Pill
advert]. (Billy-Jo 16)
Yeah, I see those adverts, but I don’t really
take them in..they’re just there, like, not
something I focus on. (Rich, 15)
Rather than recalling the of the adverts (i.e.
‘Knowledge prevents HIV, fights AIDS, cures
hopelessness’), informants relayed their mem-
ories relating to specific images. They recog-
nised the iconography, such as the logos of
Staying Alive and Know HIV/AIDS, but they
did not necessarily recall the messages. Ways in
which these were recalled differed in terms of
how people identified themselves and their
particular context at the time of viewing.
When asked to recall any aspect of the
campaign, brand recognition of MTV and
Viacom logos was the main finding across all
the groups. Respondents consistently recalled
images, rather than text, and their interactions
with these images, such as paying attention or
tuning out. In the case of the Knowledge in a
Pill advert (Figure 1), many participants
viewed it as a drugs-related advert on first
glance. Where they were and what they were
doing (e.g. going to work, getting on the bus)
was integral to how the image was recalled.
The messages were most notably related to as
fleeting images rather than something people
stopped to take time to read:
Yeah, I saw that message on the side of a
bus, but I didn’t get it. (Tim, 42)
..Everybody’s busy these days and like
Victoria says, you might see that poster in a
bus station but you haven’t got the time to
stop and read it. (Craig, 37)
Although the commentary of informants
focussed mainly on adverts they recalled from
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DOI: 10.1002/nvsm
Branding HIV/AIDS communication 97

posters ‘around town’, similar responses Aestheticising HIV/AIDS

concerning hearing/seeing but not consciously communication: knowing is beautiful?
taking in the messages were evident in relation
to other media, such as television. These With regard to the adverts that drew on
techniques of emotional branding and sensory
interactions also differed due to the possibility
of ‘timeshifting’ or fast forwarding through appeal, many informants emphasised their
interactions with images in these adverts. In
adverts and public service announcements on
the case of the Knowing is Beautiful adverts,
television. Rich, 16, an avid MTV viewer dis-
(Figure 2) they focussed on the images,
cusses how he usually responds to adverts on
without relating the content to the text
MTV:
concerning testing.
The Knowing is Beautiful PSAs were read
Facilitator: Have you seen some of these
before on MTV? by informants within the genre of fashion
adverts, with little or no acknowledgement of
Rich: I’m not sure..don’t remember. the content of the messages. The focus,
particularly for young people, remained on
how the adverts reminded them of perfume or
Facilitator: So you don’t think you’ve
fashion adverts:
actually seen any of these before, even
though you often watch MTV?
That seems like its selling Calvin Klein or
Rich: Could have done but I usually skip something like that. (Tracey, 20)
the adverts.
I think it looks like one of those perfume
For both the images on sides of buses and
adverts you see in magazines. (Mike 19)
the adverts shown on television, participants
interacted with these as part of their broader
Viewers of the adverts located them as
‘media landscape’, which coincided with the
intended by the producers, within the frame of
way in which they interact with other media
a ‘cool fashion brand’. Whilst the majority of
adverts. This was done mainly through tuning
informants quickly placed and understood
in or tuning out when viewing certain images,
these adverts within the context of the fashion
depending on the relevance to their lives and
advert genre, when asked if they related to the
sense of group belonging. In the following
messages about HIV, few reported grasping
excerpt the young men who saw the advert
that the messages were related to HIV testing
tuned out, deeming the advert to be geared
or understood the pink plaster in the shape of
towards an older audience:
the symbol of an HIV test. The following
response to the Knowing is Beautiful cam-
It’s not set at the teenage market like, is it?
paign came from the HIV positive African
It’s for the older generation. (Tim, 15)
women’s focus group:
Well, it’s naught to do with us because it’s
like, they’re adults. You just see a tablet,
you don’t think nowt about it really. (Tom,
16)

These findings share commonalities with the

findings that follow, whereby the importance
of relevance and group belonging can be seen,
both in relation to the content and aesthetics of Figure 2. ‘Knowing is Beautiful’ Viacom HIV testing
the communication. Campaign, 2004.

Copyright # 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Int. J. Nonprofit Volunt. Sect. Mark., February 2010
DOI: 10.1002/nvsm
98
Facilitator: Looking at that would you say
that’s a campaign about HIV/AIDS?
Hilda: No
Amy: No
Julia: No
Kate: It doesn’t really say..Knowing is
beautiful. Knowing what??
Despite the text on the posters explicitly
calling viewers to ‘learn about HIV testing’, the
HIV positive women did not initially decode
the message as pertaining to HIV education or
testing. The focus remained instead on the
images and the race of the actors in particular.
The text that they focussed on decoding was
the title: ‘Knowing is Beautiful’ which they
found arresting (‘Knowing is not beautiful’,
Amica 32) and difficult to relate to as women
living with HIV.
Responding to the aesthetics of the
messages
The MTV ‘Syringe’ (2004) advert was found to
be most engaging by the majority of respon-
dents under 25. Produced by MTV in 2004 with
upbeat club music and close-up camera angles,
similar to those found in car advertisements,
this PSA provides a slow motion, close-up view
of a shiny silver syringe in use. At the very end
of the PSA a substance representing blood is
introduced into the syringe. The music slows
and a young woman’s voice states: ‘you can get
HIV in three seconds and not always through
sex. Never share needles.’
The peer education for sexual health group
discussed how they were struck by the visuals
of the advert at some length. They enthusias-
tically identified with the advert for its
aesthetic qualities, and also for its exotic
‘scare’ factor (syringe in use):
Don: I liked the second one, because it was
really slow and you could get into it....
Copyright # 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Int. J. Nonprofit Volunt. Sect. Mark., February 2010
Cheryl Martens
Becky: I thought the second was because it
was like a car advert...
Lily: Yeah, I thought it was a car advert.
Facilitator: What made for the appeal of
that [syringe] one so strong?
Cathy: It’s really stylised
Group: (agreeing) It was, yeah
Don: It’s clean cut and laid out
Georgina: It’s kind of confusion at first and
you were like what’s that?
Lana: You had to watch it to get the story. . .It
was like a little film for me, actually. It did
remind me of a car advert. . .And the other
ones, just didn’t lead you in.
The peer educator group was critical of the
remainder of the MTV and Viacom PSAs
produced between 2004 and 2006. The PSA
featuring the syringe; however, received uni-
versal praise. This group, also most closely
decoded the various messages according to the
intentions of the producers at MTV and Viacom.
MTV viewing cafe staff also identified more
with this advert than the others and considered
it to be the strongest HIV awareness message
put out by MTV. One participant exclaimed,
‘I’ll never look at sex the same way again!..that
advert will be with me in bed for the rest of my
life!’ (Tracey, 20).
These responses contrast strongly with
those of respondents who least identified with
this particular style of advert. The young men
from the Connexions Centre focus group
engaged with the content of the advert by
teasing each other about ‘diggin’6 and asked
each other jokingly: ‘you been sharing?’ They
were particularly dismissive of this style of PSA.
It did not maintain their interest, and one
member discounted it by saying ‘I don’t think
any drug dealers would pay attention to that!!’
(Tim, 15).
6
‘Diggin’ is used in this case to refer to injecting drugs.
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Branding HIV/AIDS communication
Within the HIV support centre’s focus group
members, a single adult male in his mid-30s
reported identifying with the aesthetic appeal
of the adverts. This participant was also the
service group member who most regularly
reported regularly watching MTV. His first
response to outdoor PSAs for the Knowing is
Beautiful campaign was: ‘I think that that’s a
really really important message to get across’
(Bob, 34).
Drawn in to the adverts by their aesthetic
appeal and message to young people about
testing, Bob considered these messages timely
in relation to what he considered a need
amongst young people in the area for greater
awareness about testing.
However, the act of viewing is also a
dynamic act, which happens over the space
of time (Cronin, 2004). In future exchanges,
after having viewed the entire campaign on the
internet and having heard what others at the
HIV support group thought of the campaign,
Bob’s opinion of these highly aestheticised
adverts changed to anger and disgust: ‘They
make me right angry, those arty PSAs! They’re
right offensive’. When asked what he made of
this particular campaign and the representa-
tions it portrayed Bob replied:
It doesn’t really represent the reality. It’s a
bit perverse in a way, though. Because its
almost fetishizing it really, and they are all
beautiful attractive people, and the vast
majority of ill people aren’t.
Identifying with MTV condoms and
icons of HIV awareness
The following discussion examines audience
responses to and interactions with the branded
condoms distributed by MTV and other
consumer objects mediating HIV awareness
raising, more generally. In 2004, in association
with Condomi Condoms, MTV ran a campaign
selling condoms for £2 in Virgin record stores
across the UK. Responses to the campaign
varied according to how participants situated
themselves as consumers, according to gender,
and/or their experiences of living with HIV.
Copyright # 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Int. J. Nonprofit Volunt. Sect. Mark., February 2010
99
Identifying with branded condoms does not
make using them necessarily any easier to
incorporate into everyday life. Issues of power
in sexual relations are thus inseparable from
how people relate to and integrate condom use
(Holland and Ramazanoglu, 1994) and will
also be touched upon here. The discussion
will close with the changing way in which
a service group member and volunteer ident-
ified with the objects in relation to his everyday
life.
The responses to the branded condoms by
the secondary school and peer educator
groups were positive. The secondary school
class focus group immediately remarked on the
MTV Staying Alive logo on the condoms. They
concurred with Billy Jo (16) that the ‘Staying
Alive means be safe’. The packets were
considered ‘good and effective for selling’
(Amanda, 15) and they also considered the
packets to be appropriately marketed to young
couples. They were impressed by the attractive
packaging of the condoms and considered that
‘it makes it stand out more that the money goes
to HIV/AIDS’ (Katie, 16). The students framed
their reflections concerning the condoms in
relation to consumer identities: ‘people go for
the price, then the product’ (Georgina, 17).
Two pounds for the condoms was considered
to be ‘okay’ (Mandeep, 16) and ‘a reasonable
price’ (Katie 16). Not purchasing condoms did
not emerge as an issue. Condom use and
purchase were voiced as an unproblematic
part of sexual relationships and everyday life
by the young women. While the young men
did not counter these ideas, they were much
less vocal on the subject than the young
women.
The Connexions Centre focus group, the
most overtly brand aware of all the groups that
participated in the research, unanimously
resisted the idea of buying branded condoms.
Whilst there was a resistance to the branded
condoms, it was less to do with the use of
condoms than their purchase. Their engage-
ment with this particular theme also demon-
strated a display of macho attitudes, tied up in
their ways of relating to the materials—
through jokes and by putting women down.
DOI: 10.1002/nvsm
100 Cheryl Martens

They stated that they would not personally buy Connexions centre. These very same symbols
branded condoms in record stores (or any- of HIV awareness, however, were related to
where) nor did they think others would buy differently by people living with HIV, depen-
them. One respondent stated: ‘I wouldn’t pay dent on a range of factors. Service user and
two quid for them’ [Tom, 16]. In a later volunteer at the centre, Bob, discusses the
exchange with the young men it transpired significance of the red wrist band and how the
that they get condoms from a local clinic. They symbols pertaining to AIDS awareness have
also teased each other that using condoms was been incorporated into his everyday life in an
‘for dirty bitches’ and expressed that they were evolving way:
more concerned about Chlamydia than any-
thing else.
When I first went to SAN’s7 and did the
Not interested in ‘nice pictures’ on con-
volunteer training, there was a little band
doms, the consumer items that this group
that says ‘destigmatising HIV’ . That’s
emphasised through their appearances were
never come off since, and that’s really
brand name trainers, visual markers such as
symbolic to me and I almost..uh..I value it
arm bands, Burberry and branded accessories
as much as I value my wedding ring. . .its
around their necks. Rather than taking up the
so important to me. And its not embossed,
idea of purchasing MTV condoms they
its in the rubber, and I kind of like that,
suggested that HIV prevention and awareness
because I know its there, and people will
should be promoted through some kind of
see that. And you know, I know—this
campaign such as red wrist bands:
sounds really silly but—I’ve got a woolly
hat, with sort of a red ribbon on it, and
Tim: Do HIV and AIDS do like that football
actually since I’ve been involved with
band and that?...They have a black one for
SAN’s, I’ve actually been more confident
racism and stuff like that.
to wear that. And part of that is the fact
that being involved with SAN’s. And being
Dave: And they should have one for HIV!
involved in an organisation that has a
mixture of HIV positive and not HIV
Eddie: And everyone wears them.
positive people—that I know of—and
wearing the ribbon, makes me not feel
Tim: Footballers, especially.
that wearing the ribbon or destigmatising
HIV band kind of thing, doesn’t automati-
Eddie: People think, ‘Well, he’s got one, so I
cally say to everyone that you’re HIV
should get one!’
positive, which is how I felt before.
This exchange raises the issue of class in
The above quote demonstrates how Bob’s
relation to non-linearity and the importance of
interaction with and understandings of objects
iconic communication of information (Terra-
associated with HIV awareness have been
nova, 2004), whereby the ‘HIV awareness
influenced not by his changing identity and
community’ for these young people is based in
personal experience, from being an HIV
exteriorised and collective use of symbols. In
positive non-volunteer and non-service group
this case, they draw on footballers as potential
member for seven years, to becoming both a
points of connection between themselves
service user and one of the most active
and what they view as the ‘distant issue’ of
HIV.
Although red wrist bands did not take place
via a set campaign, they did nonetheless get
distributed by the local HIV support group and 7
The organisation name has been changed to protect
were eventually worn by the young men at the people’s confidentiality.

Copyright # 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Int. J. Nonprofit Volunt. Sect. Mark., February 2010
DOI: 10.1002/nvsm
Branding HIV/AIDS communication
volunteers within 6 months of him joining the
organisation.
Discussion: identifying and interacting
with the brands HIV communication
The above findings demonstrate a variety of
ways in which current HIV awareness messages
‘fit in’ with people’s media landscapes. Partici-
pants most commonly interacted with the
messages of HIV/AIDS communication as
objects in passing and not often engaged with
consciously. In some cases, the adverts were
seen as irrelevant or fast forwarded through by
target audiences altogether. The responses to
these adverts can be seen in terms of the context
of media overload (Couldry, 2000). The level of
(dis)engagement by participants also pertains to
the volume of information they receive about
risks in their everyday lives (Van Loon, 2002),
impacting upon the kinds of rational responses
they make. However, in addition, the level of
engagement is demonstrably related to how
participants perceived the relevance of the
messages in relation to their sense of group
belonging including gender, race, socio-cultural
positioning, personal experience and class.
Significantly, within the sample of young
people and the HIV support group focus group
participants there was a marked difference
between the groups of young people who
received HIV education sessions and were
involved in peer education, and the other
participants. The participants who most ident-
ified with the MTV campaigns were not
necessarily MTV viewers, but those who
identified with the campaigns’ marketing
management’s aesthetics and values promoted
as part of the packaging of HIV awareness.
MTV condoms were most highly regarded by
middle class secondary school students, for
example those who identified with the aes-
thetics and values promoted by the MTV adverts
and who affirmed their trust in MTV as a major
international brand. For the young working class
men at the Connexions centre—all of whom
were MTV viewers—who put much time and
effort into external group markers, such as
wearing Burberry, and other brands, greater
Copyright # 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Int. J. Nonprofit Volunt. Sect. Mark., February 2010
101
excitement and interest in HIV education was
generated amongst them by raising awareness
via symbols, potentially supported by sports
personalities and celebrities. With regard to HIV
support service user responses to the branding
and aestheticisation of the campaigns, the vast
majority of participants felt left out of HIV
prevention messages altogether. In the case of
the Knowing is Beautiful Campaign, the
women’s group of participants from the HIV
support group misunderstood the intended
message altogether and voiced their offence at
the campaign tag line.
Considering the relations of participants—
most notably HIV service user Bob—towards
brands and icons of HIV awareness, such as the
red ribbon illustrates that relations to these
objects need to be understood in conjunction
with changing notions of identity, based on
personal and group experiences. Bob’s initial
view of these items as ‘branding’ him as being
HIV positive initially over the space of several
months transformed to making him feel part of a
collective engaged in destigmatising HIV and
actively engaged in HIV education volunteer
work. Bob’s response, in contrast to responses
from other HIV negative participants who
mainly related to objects as consumers, fore-
grounds his relation to these items according to
his interaction with them and his changing
sense of identity concerning his HIV positive
status. The engagement of Bob with these
objects and icons of HIV/AIDS awareness
demonstrates how ‘mediated communication
is always a contextualised social phenomen-
on. . .embedded in social contexts’ (Thompson,
1995: 11).
Conclusion
This paper has explored audience interactions
and responses to branded consumer objects
and icons of HIV awareness, through a case
study of the widest reaching global AIDS
campaigns in existence today, the campaigns
of MTV and Viacom. Examining audience
interactions with the campaigns, it was
possible to gain an understanding of how
certain hierarchies of gender, sexuality, race,
DOI: 10.1002/nvsm
102
culture and class presented in the campaigns
were accepted and/or challenged. This may be
seen as part of a spectrum of identification and
participation with the media through which
the messages are communicated. However, in
considering the wider marketing management
discourses and aesthetics that make up the
campaigns, it is possible to see how those most
receptive to the campaigns were also most
likely to take up the discourses and find appeal
in the experiential marketing techniques used.
In both the focus group and in-depth
interviews, participants did not respond pas-
sively to this new genre of branded and
aestheticised adverts. Despite the use of the
signifiers of difference and multiculturalism,
youth and agency via consumer ‘choice’, the
focus groups demonstrated strong disassocia-
tions with regard to the messages. So called
‘groups at risk’, including the young people
and ethnic minorities that the campaign
claimed to target often rejected or disasso-
ciated themselves from the messages and the
media through which they were communi-
cated. The strongest identification with and
participation in the campaigns came from
groups that shared many of the middle class
aesthetic values and tastes that constituted the
advertisements. Participants of middle class
socio economic and/or educational back-
ground, regardless of whether or not they
were MTV viewers, were thus found to be the
most receptive to the campaigns and most
readily took up the discourses and ideologies
used by the campaign marketing managers.
This research elaborates current theories of
communication and social marketing through
detailed empirical consideration of audience
interactions and responses to the HIV/AIDS
campaigns of MTV and Viacom. By considering
the branded media campaigns as open and
relational objects it has been possible to
document the role of branding and aestheticisa-
tion as processes shaping both the messages and
participants understandings of the campaigns.
Audience interactions indicate that aestheticisa-
tion itself is now constituting a new discursive
arena whereby a hierarchisation of visuality is
taking place, as some ‘audience segments’,
Copyright # 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Int. J. Nonprofit Volunt. Sect. Mark., February 2010
Cheryl Martens
dependent on socio-economic and cultural
factors, engage to a greater extent with the
aesthetic thrust and consumer orientation of the
messages than others.
Acknowledgements
The findings presented in this article are based
on doctoral research completed at the Univer-
sity of Manchester on HIV/AIDS campaigns and
changing modes of communication. The
author would like thank the focus group
participants and interviewees who partici-
pated in this study and the article reviewers
for their insights. The author would also like to
acknowledge invaluable support received on
earlier drafts of this paper by Dr. Graham Kirk-
patrick and Dr. Sonia Bookman.
Biographical note
Dr Cheryl Martens is a Senior Lecturer in the
School of Creative Enterprise, London College
of Communication, University of the Arts
London, where she teaches Marketing Com-
munications, Media and Cultural Studies.
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