Written by: Yves Calmette
Abstract: ACON is Australia’s largest LGBTI health organisation with a primary focus on the prevention of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs), as well as health promotion with gay men and other men who have sex with men (MSM). This is the group most affected by HIV in New South Wales (NSW), making up around 80% of all new infections annually (NSW Health, 2013). ACON is a community-based organisation, running a number of programs tailored to gay men’s sexual subcultures, practices, ethnicities and ages. In February 2013, ACON launched Ending HIV, the first large-scale campaign designed to meet the new targets set out in the NSW HIV Strategy 2012-15: A New Era (NSW Health, 2011). This strategy set the ambitious targets of reducing the transmission of HIV between gay and other homosexually active men in NSW by 60% by 2015, and 80% by 2020. Ending HIV was designed to mobilise the gay community to reach these targets. Ending HIV is an interactive social marketing campaign based on peer-education principles that incorporates communication, campaign and community mobilistaion initiatives to reach this goal. Ending HIV has been rolled out nationally and has received a high level of international attention, including winning the 2013 and 2014 Sydney Design Award, Australian Creative Best of the Best, Communication Arts Award of Excellence and the 2014 Graphis Annual Design Award. This article explores the genesis of ACON’s innovative engagement platform, which now drives all of ACON’s HIV and STI prevention work, and discusses the approach’s growing promise for prevention for diverse contexts.
Keywords: HIV, Ending HIV, Social Media