The question has the assembled audience squirming

Read the caselet carefully and answer the following questions:

1.      Is PSI successful in delivering the message to the target audience? Justify your comments.

2.Government represented organisations play a vital role in the social marketing campaigns. Explain the advantages and disadvantages if government has an active role in such campaigns.

The question has the assembled audience squirming. "How many of you have touched a condom this week? Those who have, raise your hands," urges the speaker. Amidst silence, some shifting and some embarrassed laughter, Sanjay, Programme Director (HIV/AIDS Prevention), Population Services International (PSI), tries to make the point that the stigma attached to discussing sexual health issues is more dangerous than the virus that causes AIDS. Sanjay is giving a presentation at the regional conference on AIDS prevention.

PSI, which was set up in India in 1988, uses social marketing to deliver health products and services to lower-income groups in developing countries, to motivate their use and promote healthy behaviour. A Washington, DC-based non-profit organisation working in over 50 countries, its forte is AIDS prevention, family planning, maternal and child health. In India, PSI markets its own brand of Masti condoms, and helps market the Kama Sutra and Nirodh Dlx brands in smaller towns and remote areas. Among other health products it markets are the Pearl brand of contraceptive pills, the Union Government's Mala D, oral rehydration solution and a clean delivery kit.

PSI, which has just launched a campaign in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, among the States with the highest incidence of HIV, is involved in social marketing and communications for health. Aimed at increasing awareness of the risk of contracting HIV/AIDS through unprotected sex with non-regular partners and at busting certain misconceptions associated with it, the campaign has two parts to it. The campaign is part of Operation Lighthouse, a port-based HIV/AIDS/STD intervention, set to reach millions of people, specifically vulnerable populations in port communities, with the information, services, and products they need to protect themselves from HIV/AIDS. The key target groups include truck drivers, commercial sex workers and their clients, and port workers. These high-risk populations are responsible for the vast majority of HIV incidence in port communities. They also play a critical role in accelerating the spread of HIV to the general population.

"Puli Rajavukku AIDS varumaa?" is the horrified question that rings through the teaser ad. This goes on to three more spots which advise the target ^'consumer^' to practise safe sex with non-regular partners. The other part urges the target group to `be faithful'. The exercise is based on the Balbir Pasha campaign that PSI ran in Mumbai, one that generated much controversy and flak for the organisation. The Balbir Pasha campaign (developed by Lowe) was slammed for being "anti-women", perceived as implying that women spread HIV/AIDS and charged with stigmatizing sex workers but was "remarkably successful" in that post campaign, PSI's helpline received 250 per cent more calls; its Saadhan clinics, (Saadhan integrates the multiple issues of family health by offering more accessible information on more choices) voluntary counselling and testing centres, had 150 per cent more visitors and there was a 300 per cent rise in all brands of condoms sold in the red light district of Mumbai.

The Puli Raja campaign uses TV, radio, print and outdoors. It uses locations frequented by the target group. In Mumbai, Kolkata and Delhi, there are clearly defined red light areas, but not so in TN and AP, which is major challenge of this endeavour.

The points that PSI seeks to address are, that a healthy-looking person or known partner need not necessarily be HIV/AIDS-free, and that alcohol-induced forgetfulness leads to the failure of using a condom. In fact, this is the ideal on which the second sub-campaign, Be Faithful, is based. It shows how, by having extra-marital affairs, men can give HIV to their wives and thus to unborn children, putting their lives at risk. Puli Raja, who was visualised as a tall, hefty, invincible, fun-loving hero in pre-campaign testing, actually remains faceless throughout the campaign. "He is every man, his conscience. He's an idea.