 There have been a number of comments made recently in the gay press regarding the Victorian AIDS Council / Gay Men’s Health Centre’s Protection campaign. There appear to be a number of conflicting assumptions around the campaign, who it has been targeted to and its effectiveness.
The AIDS Council were asked by the Department of Human Services (now Health Department) to develop a campaign to address issues related to men who engage in unprotected anal intercourse in casual settings, regardless of how old these men might be. The initiative was designed to be a condom reinforcement campaign, and has turned out to be the most effective campaign of its kind that the AIDS Council has implemented in its now 26 year history.
Two separate external evaluations have demonstrated that the campaign had in excess of 70 per cent recognition and, among those people who recognized the campaign, an impressive 90 per cent could recall at least one campaign message and over 50 per cent had become more conscious of using condoms and lube when fucking. An interesting feature of these focus groups was that they were conducted in men between the ages of 18 and 50, with half of them being between the ages of 18 and 29. The evidence of these evaluations put to rest the notion that this campaign has no relevance to younger gay men or that the campaign has been a failure.
We are aware that some in the community have been critical of the campaign. We acknowledge that there is more to gay men than just how and how often we have sex. Since sex, and in particular anal intercourse, is the principle issue we are looking at, the imagery of the campaign is in no way gratuitous but central to the issue we are addressing. Sex is certainly not the only focus gay men have but it is certainly important, and for those men who have lots of casual sex, the issue of safety is paramount to their continued well-being. It seems entirely appropriate that sexually explicit images be used in this context. In other areas of health promotion and public safety it is important to depict activities that others might deem undesirable. For instance, it is not uncommon to see anti smoking campaigns depicting people smoking, or traffic safety advertisements showing speeding drivers. Similarly, it was logical to us that when designing this particular campaign we had to depict sex.
I have made the point elsewhere, but it seems important to reiterate it here: effective health promotion cannot be unilateral in its approach. I do not believe that if a campaign does not speak to one individual then it will not work with anyone else. That is why we employ a variety of approaches, looking at a variety of issues with the main aim of engaging our audience: men who have sex with men. We have been very pleased that the current campaign has been as effective as it has and has received recognition both here and around the world. If the campaign has played a role in sparking a debate about the importance of safe sex 26 years into the epidemic, then that is a very good thing indeed.
Colin Batrouney is manager of the Health Promotion Program at VAC/GMHC |
