HIV Prevention Advertising

Organization Information:

Organization Name:
New Mexico AIDS Services
City & State:
Albuquerque, 
New Mexico
Organization Website:
http://www.nmas.net
Organization's Mission Statement

New Mexico AIDS Services (NMAS) is a 501(c)3 non-profit community based organization whose mission is to enhance the quality of life for people and communities affected by HIV/AIDS through innovative and comprehensive services, support and prevention education.

NMAS operates under the guidance and leadership of a Board of Directors, 43 employees and over 150 volunteers who fulfill the mission of the agency. NMAS provides high quality non-judgmental, science-based health promotion, and disease prevention interventions that are focused on the community, the family, and the client.

Submission Information

Impact Essay

The saying “a picture is worth 1,000 words” is even more true when you are fighting against HIV. The key to success in the fight against AIDS is simply information. If people know when to get tested, we win. If people know why they should get tested, we win. When people know how to protect themselves against HIV, we win. But, when we try to fight these fights, it is important that we do the best we can right from the start, because people only pay attention for so long. The average person in this country is exposed to over 2,000 ads every single day. Many ads get lost in the clutter as human use their advertising filter to ignore certain messages. Why is this important to us? Because, in the fight against HIV, one second can be all it takes to lose the fight. All it takes is one second without a condom, one poke with a dirty needle, and the battle is over. This is why advertising is so important when it comes to educating the public on HIV & AIDS. When trying to educate the public on a mass scale, sometimes information can be difficult to give. If we only have one second of someone’s time before they move on to the next ad, we must be as effective as possible, as quickly as possible. Which is why, as an organization, we rely so heavily upon mass market advertising by using design programs such as publisher. Some may feel that advertising is a trivial medium and that it is not important. But, when you look at how advertising has affected the way women feel about their bodies, the way that men feel about their muscles, the way it can make something an overnight sensation, and create unbelievable demand, then it becomes apparent that advertising is key to the prevention of HIV. When Tech Soup donated the publisher program to us, we were suddenly able to be creative in a way that we hadn’t been capable of before. We were able to visualize the ads that we thought would be most effective, and design them using the program. Our agency would not have been able to afford this program on our own and would not have had the success that we have had with our messaging to the mass public. We were able to design newsletters to send out to our recipients and we were also able to design different ads that could be placed on our website and that conveyed that risks associated with irresponsible sexual behavior. By being able to design these ads, we were able to reach the whole of the Albuquerque Community through newspapers and online advertisements. We continue to use this program in an effort to educate New Mexicans on the risks of HIV & AIDS.

saw more people come in for testing, and even more people who tested positive.

Submission Category
Stable and Secure Technology