Battling Ignorance in the Quest for Social Change: Fighting HIV/AIDS by Means of Social Marketing

Abstract: There are currently 40 million people worldwide infected with HIV/AIDS, and
out of these, 5.3 million are living in South Africa, thus constituting the
world’s largest HIV/AIDS population. The pandemic is a severe threat to not
only individuals and families, but to the economy and development of an
entire nation, this since the disease ends the lives of people in their most
productive years. Due to the fact that there is currently no cure for
HIV/AIDS, the only remaining option is trying to in every way prevent the
spread of the virus. One way of combating the pandemic is the inclusion of
social marketing in order to establish and maintain a change in behavior.

The purpose of this study is to provide a better understanding of how
nonprofit organizations make use of social marketing campaigns to invoke
behavioral change regarding HIV/AIDS. The research comprises two nonprofit
organizations, Save the Children Sweden and Molo Songololo, which together
conducted a preventative campaign called “Young Men’s Participation to
Combat Sexual Abuse, Sexual Exploitation and Violence”. The campaign was
carried out during the 2004 16 Days of Activism in Cape Town, South Africa.

The findings of the study advocate that education, including peer education
and empowerment, are the core elements of a social change campaign of this
nature. Further, cultural sensitivity and a thorough understanding of the
complexity of gender roles are pivotal when trying to communicate a
preventative message in this region. A mixture of modern and traditional
communication tools, so called folk media, will aid in the process of
adequately reaching the target adopters.