In the context of a global aids epidemic, with NGO’s struggling to resonate with youth culture; the solution required an intouch, radical and experimental approach. A top down approach from MTV was wildly successful in sparking conversation while involving this criteria in a simpe well devised add campaign, utilizing a 21^st century social media frenzy through their hashtag ‘FCKHIV’. (WPPedCream 2017, 2019) Credited to the agency, Ogilvy Johannesburg in coordination with brand name Viacom and MTV the campaign went on to win numerous awards and spark roughly 6.8milion impressions within the first 5 hours, trending as the top hashtag on world aids day on twitter (One Nation Studios, 2019).

The success of this campaign from a design and marketing perspective is due to a couple of simplistic but highly effective variables. Firstly connection, this campaign (in reflection of the video <https://vimeo.com/279797639> quickly identifies itself as an expressive, radical and in touch piece of production. Using traditional film footage in the beginning and subverting it’s serious undertones with bold bright and almost rude text, notably the ‘blah, blah, blah blah’, completely changes the tone and feeling, thus setting a new precinct with correct emotional undertones for the movement to be built on (Behance.net, 2019).

In it’s first phase (upon release in 2016) timing was key. The campaign was executed during the month of December, a consistent date set for youth in Africa to party hard, and perfectly in alightment with World Aids Day (Welovead.com, 2019).

In the productions final form the campaign took another radical approach in 2017. Taking the contextually relevant imagery of sperm and juxtaposing its contents with it’s message through a vibrant colourful layout of sperm, blocky but contemporary abstract shapes and big bold but playful typography illustrating the core message, ‘#FCK HIV’ (Ogilvy.co.za, 2019).

Apart of the solution involved interdisplenary coordination. This further addresses issues around cultural disconnection and the previous problem with connecting to youth. To address this Ogilvy “ took MTV’s animation art direction and fused it with an underground South African music genre called, Gqom.” Thus we have a highly successful and multi displenary campaign, utilising the hyper digital platform of social media and some clever design to potentially treat thousands of individuals while simultaneously reverting and removing stigma around the global monster known as HIV.

In response to the brief itself, I believe this campaign sets a perfect precedence of thinking for our Indonesia task. Specifically the notions of empathy, understanding and practicality in terms of conection and an in touch attitude and timeless design in consideration of cultural history and current status quoe (Ogilvy.co.za, 2019).

References

Anon, (2019). [online] Available at: https://vimeo.com/279797639&gt;) [Accessed 26 Nov. 2019].

Behance.net. (2019). Behance. [online] Available at: https://www.behance.net/gallery/71695585/MTV-FCKHIV [Accessed 26 Nov. 2019].

Ogilvy.co.za. (2019). Welcome | Ogilvy South Africa. [online] Available at: http://ogilvy.co.za/ [Accessed 26 Nov. 2019].

One Nation Studios. (2019). One Nation Studios – Channel O Absolute V3. [online] Available at: https://www.onenationstudios.co.za/channel-o-absolute-v3/ [Accessed 26 Nov. 2019].

Welovead.com. (2019). VIACOM | Ogilvy | MTV #FCKHIV | WE LOVE AD. [online] Available at: http://www.welovead.com/en/works/details/7bbwhutAg [Accessed 26 Nov. 2019].

WPPedCream 2017. (2019). MTV #FCKHIV. [online] Available at: https://sites.wpp.com/wppedcream/2017/healthcare/consumer-digital/mtv-fckhiv/ [Accessed 26 Nov. 2019].