Abstract
Black people comprise 4.3% of Ontario’s population but 19% of HIV-positive people in the province. The “Keep it alive!” social marketing campaign was developed to promote HIV prevention and raise awareness about HIV among Ontario’s Black communities. This article evaluates the campaign’s reception. A convenience sample of 243 Black people completed a cross-sectional self-administered survey in three cities. We assessed the campaign’s reception based on survey responses about campaign exposure, appeal, and importance, and whether the campaign raised awareness. Our results show that reception was more favorable among participants who tested for HIV previously, discussed the campaign with others, demonstrated a superior knowledge of HIV, visited the campaign website, were of Caribbean or African background, and were male. In addition, reception varied by city and according to participants’ language (English or French). These results may inform future campaigns, although how campaigns are received may reflect issues related to their implementation.
Highlights
Black people constitute only 4.3% of Ontario’s total population (Statistics Canada, 2013), but in 2009, Black people infected with HIV through heterosexual contact accounted for 18.8% of the estimated number of people living with HIV in the province (Remis, Swantee, & Liu, 2012)
In 2006-2009, ACCHO developed and implemented the “Keep it alive!” (KIA) social marketing campaign (SMC) to promote greater awareness about HIV among Black communities in Ontario, in relation to HIV prevention, stigma reduction, and creating a supportive environment for people living with HIV
It is questionable whether SMCs should stand or fall on this basis (Adam et al, 2011; Airhihenbuwa & Obregon, 2000; Coffman, 2002), because (a) the target audiences may be exposed to multiple sources of information in the “real world,” (b) the pervasive stigma associated with HIV may hamper adherence to the campaign messages, (c) some of the putative outcomes of HIV-focused SMCs may not be amenable to a linear causal effect, (d) some campaigns have multiple objectives depending on the level of awareness or understanding of HIV among the target community, and (e) discernible behavior change in a community may emerge over an extended time horizon
Summary
Black people constitute only 4.3% of Ontario’s total population (Statistics Canada, 2013), but in 2009, Black people infected with HIV through heterosexual contact accounted for 18.8% of the estimated number of people living with HIV in the province (Remis, Swantee, & Liu, 2012). Noar, Palmgreen, Chabot, Dobransky, and Zimmerman (2009) have suggested that showing causal evidence for behavior change should be the gold standard of campaign evaluations It is questionable whether SMCs should stand or fall on this basis (Adam et al, 2011; Airhihenbuwa & Obregon, 2000; Coffman, 2002), because (a) the target audiences may be exposed to multiple sources of information in the “real world,” (b) the pervasive stigma associated with HIV may hamper adherence to the campaign messages, (c) some of the putative outcomes of HIV-focused SMCs may not be amenable to a linear causal effect (e.g., promoting community awareness, prioritizing HIV on community agendas, building trust in community organizations, etc.), (d) some campaigns have multiple objectives depending on the level of awareness or understanding of HIV among the target community, and (e) discernible behavior change in a community may emerge over an extended time horizon. HIV-related campaigns are not uniformly received or interpreted among target populations because target populations are neither uniformly constituted nor uniformly exposed to the subject matter
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