Act Against AIDS First Year Highlights

In April, 2009, the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) and the White House announced a new national communication campaign, Act Against AIDS, designed to combat complacency about the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the United States. It is estimated that about 56,000 Americans become newly infected with HIV each year—and more than 14,000 people with HIV die. Act Against AIDS (AAA) highlights that every 9½ minutes a person in the United States becomes infected with HIV. The AAA campaignis a 5-year, multi-faceted communication campaign designed to contribute to the CDC and White House goals of reducing HIV incidence in the United States. It is the first federally funded national domestic HIV/AIDS campaign in nearly 20 years, and is being released in several phases that feature targeted messages to populations most at risk for HIV infection.

The attached First Year-End Report: April 2009–March 2010 reviews some of the developments since the launch of AAA and includes estimates on the reach of AAA messages through a variety of media, highlights information about AAA campaign phases, and recaps some of the efforts by the campaign's valuable HIV prevention partnerships.

 

Among the most significant accomplishments of AAA in its first year were the successful launches of three AAA campaign phases. The first phase of AAA, 9½ Minutes, delivers the simple message to the general public that right here in the United States, every 9½ minutes, someone's brother, mother, sister, father, or neighbor is infected with HIV. The 9½ Minutes messages have been delivered through online banner ads, ads on public transit and in bus shelters, on-air radio reads, airport dioramas, and online videos.

The next two AAA phases launched in the past year focus on African Americans, who comprise 12% of the U.S. population but account for nearly half (45%) of all new HIV infections and almost half of all Americans living with HIV. One new phase of AAA, launched in September 2009,encourages African American men who have sex with men (Black MSM) to be tested for HIV on a regular basis.  The initial wave of this HIV testing phase for Black MSM was designed through collaboration with an expert consultant work group of Black MSM and began delivering HIV testing messages to young Black MSM through online banner ads. Next, the i know phase of AAA, launched on March 4, 2010, seeks to increase HIV-related dialogue with peers, partners, and families among African American men and women aged 18–24 years. i know represents CDC's first HIV prevention campaign utilizing social media to reach a specific population and is designed to encourage African Americans aged 18 to 24 to talk openly and often about HIV, online and off. To date, i know features celebrity Web videos, radio PSAs, a Facebook fan page, live Twitter feeds, and other platforms intended to create an informative dialogue about HIV and what can be done to prevent it.

 

In addition to launching new campaign phases, CDC has been joined by partner organizations in both the public and private sectors that have contributed immensely to the successful first year of AAA. Members of the Act Against AIDS Leadership Initiative (AAALI), created by CDC, are integrating HIV prevention messages into their networks, highly influential national organizations that specifically reach those populations at greatest risk of infection. Currently AAALI consists of 16 national African-American institutions. In 2010, AAALI is expanding to include membership of organizations that specifically reach men who have sex with men (MSM) and Latinos, groups disproportionately affected by HIV. CDC also works closely with other national and international partners, including the Global Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, to collaborate on market research, message development, and channel strategies to support AAA campaign phases.

 

CDC leveraged media partnerships to deliver AAA campaign messages to an estimated 220 million people so far. For example, Clear Channel Communications, Inc., has donated more than $2 million in PSA space to AAA by way of out-of-home advertising on billboards and airport dioramas in 18 cities around the country. CDC also convened the Black AIDS Media Partnership (BAMP) in May 2009. The Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) and their media partners collaborated with BAMP to develop and launch the Greater Than AIDS campaign that focuses on at-risk African Americans.

 

In the coming months and years, CDC looks forward to expanding the reach of the AAA campaign by releasing additional AAA campaign phases and forging additional public and private partnerships. Consistent with the overall approach of AAA, partners and key influencers from diverse sectors (i.e., arts and entertainment, business, civic/social, public health, and media) are central to the success of the campaign. These partnerships have provided essential vehicles for extending the reach of HIV prevention messages as well as providing in-kind support, message dissemination, and strategic counsel to CDC.

Please see the attached report highlighting some of the accomplishments of the AAA campaign's first year. If you would like more information about the AAA campaign or any of its phases, please visit www.actagainstaids.org.