Guest blog: The art of spreading HIV/awareness through billboards
With HIV/AIDS infection rates ever increasing, awareness campaigns with alternative means of reaching people need to be developed.
South Africa has been the location for two mass media campaigns employing billboards as their communication tool: the “Break the Silence” art-based campaign and the loveLife advertising campaign.
A loveLife billboard situated flighted at the Montclair train station in South Coast Road, Durban, in 2004. The image on the billboard has no reference to HIV/AIDS. (Photo by: Bianca Bothma)
The much-publicised loveLife advertising campaign began in 1996 and uses messages such as “Get Attitude” and “Love to be There” in order to promote “positive living”. Its original goal was to cut infection rates among South African teenagers in half by 2004.
A “Break the Silence” billboard also at the Montclair train station in Durban. It features an artwork by Mduduzi Xakaza entitled “Yehoshua Comforting an AIDS Victim”. (Photo by: Bianca Bothma)
The intention of the “Break the Silence” HIV/AIDS awareness art-based campaign, launched in 2000 by non-profit organisation Art for Humanity (AFH), is to promote behavioural change in society.
This campaign grew out of a collection of artists’ response to the words “Break the Silence” and addresses the various social issues regarding the HIV/AIDS pandemic in South Africa. Art is thus employed in a public advocacy campaign to inspire a sense of “moral ownership” of the HIV/AIDS pandemic in society. See www.afh.org.za for more information.
Since 2000, the “Break the Silence” campaign has been flighted on more than 80 billboards nationally.
AFH uses a collective, art-based approach for its media strategies, which are aimed at a multi-cultural, diverse society, with different traditions of communicating. Artists from different cultural and social backgrounds contribute diverse individual viewpoints with a central focus. These aim, in turn, to be adopted by society as part of its greater cultural heritage and the message therefore stands a better chance for being internalised.
loveLife has been widely criticised in the media for its poor results and ineffectiveness in making a meaningful contribution to the fight against HIV/AIDS. This could be attributed largely to the strong branding nature of this campaign, in which the content is suppressed by the brand..It’s possible that because of this factor, loveLife messages aren’t as readily internalised.
An extensive research campaign was undertaken by Art for Humanity, through which public responses were gathered to self-reflective questions about the billboards, to determine the respondents’ reaction to the messages embedded in the images.
A billboard erected in Maydon Wharf Road, Durban, in 2005, featuring an artwork by the late Trevor Makhoba, “God wants his people”. (Photo by: Jan Jordaan)
In 2004, a billboard flighted at the main taxi rank of Umlazi Township near Durban featured an artwork by the late Trevor Makhoba, entitled “God wants his people”. The billboard was sponsored by South African Breweries and in his artist statement, Makhoba referred to the stigma of the pandemic, “If one associates with anything concerning HIV/AIDS, the community assumes one is HIV-positive.”
Art for Humanity went to the billboard site and interviewed community members to determine their responses to the billboard. One 39-year-old respondent said, “It is important to protect ourselves from this disease.”
A 13-year-old thought, “This billboard is creative and now I want to take care of myself.”
A 15-year-old respondent said, “This reminds me of the importance of using condoms and abstinence and remaining loyal to one partner.”
The “Break the Silence” material has been widely included in public and private permanent collections in and outside of South Africa.
Advertising campaigns tend to be short-term, disposable and therefore cannot be adopted and internalised by society, meaning they lack sustainability. Art-based advocacy campaigns can be ongoing and sustainable as the art and messages embedded in them can become part of our cultural heritage and are thereby available to future generations. - Bianca Bothma & Jan Jordaan (Art for Humanity)