TY - JOUR
T1 - #PrEP4Love
T2 - An evaluation of a sex-positive HIV prevention campaign
AU - Dehlin, Jessica M.
AU - Stillwagon, Ryan
AU - Pickett, Jim
AU - Keene, Lance
AU - Schneider, John A.
N1 - Funding Information:
The P4L campaign was produced by the Chicago PrEP Working Group, now significantly expanded and called the Illinois PrEP Working Group (IPWG). Initially, this group kick-started the P4L campaign through US $350K raised from a challenge grant from the Alphawood Foundation (US $250K) and private donations from individual Chicagoans (US $100K) [31]. IPWG secured pro bono creative support and volunteer hours in the summer of 2015 from a collection of Publicis Groupe advertising agencies with shops in Chicago, including Leo Burnett, Starcom, Razorfish, and Spark. Private funding and perspectives leveraged by community organizations familiar with sexual subcultures heavily affected by HIV and sexually transmitted infections enabled the IPWG to challenge and redesign the narrative on HIV prevention to one that takes seriously feelings of desire, sexual pleasure, and sexual intimacy shared between sexual actors without the use of fear as a tactic within these relationships. The sex-positive message was driven by research: A 2015 study noted one of the strongest predictors for adopting PrEP among gay men and other men who have sex with men (MSM) was the desire to increase intimacy between themselves
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 JMIR Publications Inc. All rights reserved.
PY - 2019/4/1
Y1 - 2019/4/1
N2 - Background: Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is an effective but underutilized method for preventing HIV transmission in communities vulnerable to HIV. Public health campaigns aimed at increasing PrEP awareness and access have less evaluation data. Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate Chicago's PrEP campaign, PrEP4Love (P4L), a campaign that uses health equity and sex-positivity approaches for information dissemination. Methods: P4L launched in February 2016 and remains an active campaign to date. The analysis period for this paper was from the launch date in February 2016 through May 15, 2016. Our analysis reviews the Web-based reach of the campaign through views on social media platforms (Facebook and Instagram), smart ads, or ads served to individuals across a variety of Web platforms based on their demographics and browsing history, and P4L website clicks. Results: In total, 40,913,560 unique views were generated across various social media platforms. A total of 24,548 users clicked on P4L ads and 32,223,987 views were received from smart ads. The 3 most clicked on ads were STD Signs & Symptoms-More Information on STD Symptoms, HIV & AIDS Prevention, and HIV Prevention Medication. An additional 6,970,127 views were gained through Facebook and another 1,719,446 views through Instagram. There was an average of 182 clicks per day on the P4L website. Conclusions: This is the first study investigating public responses to a health equity and sex-positive social marketing campaign for PrEP. Overall, the campaign reached millions of individuals. More studies of PrEP social marketing are needed to evaluate the relationship of targeted public health campaigns on stigma and to guide future PrEP promotion strategies.
AB - Background: Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is an effective but underutilized method for preventing HIV transmission in communities vulnerable to HIV. Public health campaigns aimed at increasing PrEP awareness and access have less evaluation data. Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate Chicago's PrEP campaign, PrEP4Love (P4L), a campaign that uses health equity and sex-positivity approaches for information dissemination. Methods: P4L launched in February 2016 and remains an active campaign to date. The analysis period for this paper was from the launch date in February 2016 through May 15, 2016. Our analysis reviews the Web-based reach of the campaign through views on social media platforms (Facebook and Instagram), smart ads, or ads served to individuals across a variety of Web platforms based on their demographics and browsing history, and P4L website clicks. Results: In total, 40,913,560 unique views were generated across various social media platforms. A total of 24,548 users clicked on P4L ads and 32,223,987 views were received from smart ads. The 3 most clicked on ads were STD Signs & Symptoms-More Information on STD Symptoms, HIV & AIDS Prevention, and HIV Prevention Medication. An additional 6,970,127 views were gained through Facebook and another 1,719,446 views through Instagram. There was an average of 182 clicks per day on the P4L website. Conclusions: This is the first study investigating public responses to a health equity and sex-positive social marketing campaign for PrEP. Overall, the campaign reached millions of individuals. More studies of PrEP social marketing are needed to evaluate the relationship of targeted public health campaigns on stigma and to guide future PrEP promotion strategies.
KW - Health equity
KW - Health promotion
KW - Pre-exposure prophylaxis
KW - Public health
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U2 - 10.2196/12822
DO - 10.2196/12822
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85097141873
SN - 2369-2960
VL - 5
JO - JMIR Public Health and Surveillance
JF - JMIR Public Health and Surveillance
IS - 2
M1 - e12822
ER -