HIV/AIDS Ad To Air Before Super Bowl, Launches Second Year of Kaiser Family Foundation, Viacom Awareness Campaign

The Kaiser Family Foundation and Viacom on Feb. 1 during the pre-game show of the Super Bowl are set to air an HIV/AIDS public service announcement, USA Today reports. The ad will kick off the second year of the "KNOW HIV/AIDS" awareness campaign, which Viacom and Kaiser launched in January 2003 (Kornblum, USA Today, 1/12). The campaign is aimed at raising HIV/AIDS awareness through PSAs, television and radio programming and free print and online content. The campaign, which includes media placements valued at more than $200 million in 2004, is targeted at both the general population and groups hardest hit by HIV/AIDS, such as people under age 25, minorities, women and men who have sex with men. In 2003, the initiative created 49 television, radio and outdoor ads. The 2004 campaign will include 40 targeted ads -- including some of the 49 ads created for last year's campaign -- that will run across Viacom's broadcast networks CBS and UPN; cable networks MTV, BET, VH1, CMT: Country Music Television, TV Land, Nickelodeon, Nick at Nite, Showtime, Spike TV and Comedy Central; 185 Infinity Broadcasting radio stations; and billboards, buses and bus shelter advertising. In addition, MTV, MTV International, Nickelodeon, BET, VH1, Showtime, Sundance Channel and Infinity Broadcasting are planning to air special HIV/AIDS-related programming throughout the year (Viacom/Kaiser Family Foundation release, 1/12). The pre-Super Bowl ad shows young people coming out of a trash bin with a voice saying that 20 million young people are expected to contract HIV, but "it doesn't have to be like that. HIV is preventable." The ad directs viewers to knowhivaids.org, the campaign's Web site, which has had 6.5 million visitors in the past year, and to 866-344-5669, a toll-free hotline, which 336,000 people called last year to ask questions about HIV/AIDS (USA Today, 1/12). A Kaiser Family Foundation survey found that 44% of adults in the United States either recognized the "KNOW HIV/AIDS" brand or had seen at least one of the campaign's ads (Viacom/Kaiser Family Foundation release, 1/12).