SCRUTINIIIZE
May 6th, 2009 • Africa
If you watch MTV for any reasonable amount of time here in Tanzania you are bound to see the SCRUTINIZE ad for HIV awareness. While HIV public health education in Australia is subtle to say the least, these campaign is in your face and loud.
It is almost incomprehensible to outsiders like myself, but the gist of the series of short advertisements seems to be to get viewers know and protect their HIV status and practice safe sex. The advertisements are animations of ‘township’ African characters who screetch their message across the television. “If a player is too drunk to put it [a condom] on, don’t put him in the game”, we are told, and the catch phrase is “Flip HIV to HI Victory!”. They are set in a variety of places, from bars to game shows, and are always eye-catching, amusing and not at all the typical dour pronouncement that public health announcements too easily turn in to.
What interests me in these ads is how culturally tuned they are. You could not play them in Australia and have any sort of impact – I doubt many Australian teens would even understand them. A lot of thought has obviously gone in to what would work here in Southern and East Africa, and it appears to be working.
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