Social Marketing Used to Promote Behavior Change Related to HIV, Other Issues in Kenya

Several advertising organizations are conducting social marketing campaigns in Kenya that address the country's health and social issues -- including HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis and domestic abuse -- Kenya's Nation reports. Kenya's advertising industry has developed many successful social marketing campaigns -- including condom-promotion campaigns aimed at reducing the spread of HIV/AIDS -- that are used throughout sub-Saharan Africa. Several international organizations, such as Population Services International, also have conducted social marketing campaigns aimed at reducing the spread of HIV/AIDS. According to a recent U.N. report, Kenya's HIV/AIDS prevalence rate has decreased from 13.6% in the 1990s to approximately 6% in 2003. Although it is unknown how much social marketing and behavior-change campaigns have contributed to the decline, there is evidence that more people in the country are delaying the onset of sexual activity or are using condoms, according to Warren Buckingham, Kenya interagency coordinator for the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. "All of those things have contributed, but I wouldn't be in a position to say they are the driving factor in reducing [HIV] prevalence," he said. In addition, the direct impact of social marketing often is difficult to assess because even if an increasing number of people are buying condoms, it is not guaranteed that they are using them, according to Andrew White, creative director for Lowe Scanad, a Nairobi ad agency that has used social marketing to promote condom use (Singer, The Nation, 1/24).

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