The Health Education Authority is launching a pounds 550,000 campaign
urging young people to wear condoms as part of the Government’s drive
against Aids.
BMP DDB Needham’s push has been timed to coincide with the pre-Christmas
party season amid fears that teenagers may be tempted to have
unprotected sex when they meet new friends.
One new press ad shows clothes and underwear scattered across a wooden
floor and reads: ‘Say you want to use a condom before it is too late.’
It urges people to carry condoms with them, adding: ‘So why not say you
want to use a condom while you’ve still got your underwear on?’
The HEA is spending pounds 250,000 on running the ad in women’s
magazines including Cosmopolitan, Chat and Eva, while young men will be
targeted through soccer magazines, including Four Four Two. The art
director was Jo Wenley and the copywriter Jeremy Craigen.
The second ad shows a picture of a teenage girl with the caption:
‘Thinking of having sex for the first time? Try this simple foreplay.’
It urges young women to ask themselves certain questions before having
sex.
The ad, targeting girls in the 15-17 age group, will run in magazines
including Mizz, Just 17 and Sugar, backed by a pounds 100,000 spend. The
art director was Ashley King and the copywriter Louise Banstone.
BMP has also made a 60-second radio ad, which will have nationwide
exposure in a pounds 200,000 push.
The three-month campaign, which breaks this weekend, is the biggest
anti-Aids effort for a year and will use a fifth of the HEA’s annual
budget.
A separate campaign will run in the gay press, following new evidence
that homosexuals sometimes have sex without wearing a condom.
Charles Gallichan, the authority’s director of advertising, said the
campaign was now aimed at individual groups after previous phases
targeted the wider population with general messages.
