Infoline

To promote and advertise the Info Line, a poster campaign with a compelling, singular thematic theme and featuring people from the targeted six ethnic groups was envisioned. This would meet several needs. For one thing, there is almost a complete lack of API faces in AIDS-related public education campaign. On the other hand, because APIs are uncomfortable speaking about HIV/AIDS, a poster is a more anonymous and less threatening approach to learning about HIV. In API communities, homosexuality is considered shameful and a threat to the continuation of traditional family lines and a large number of APIs still believe that AIDS exists only within the gay community and among people with multiple sexual partners~ Because of this belief, there is stigma, shame, and guilt attached to the disease. By offering an alternative way of accessing information in a non-threatening and confidential way, we believe APIs will be more comfortable in seeking vital health information.

Community-based organizations from the targeted ethnic groups were invited to form a coalition, named Breaking Silence Coalition, to conceptualize and develop the poster that would appeal to the diverse cultures, languages, gender, and issues of sexuality in API communities. The Coalition is composed of Chinese American Planning Council (CPC), Family Health Project (FHP), Filipino American Human Services, Inc. (FAHSI), Korean Community Services of Metropolitan New York (KCS), Japanese AIDS Workshop Series (JAWS), and South Asian Lesbian and Gay Association (SALGA). At the many meetings held over a period of several months, Coalition members grappled with the content of the poster. What message should be sent to APIs? How should this message be framed so as to be acceptable? In the end, the chosen theme combats the notion held in the community that APIs do not get AIDS. The poster sends a message that is loud and clear: everyone is affected by HIV/AIDS. APIs do get AIDS. The message is: AIDS and HIV Affect You and Me. Talk. Ask. Call.

Posters with A&PI faces and central message are now strategically placed in subways and will be in buses in August, on routes that follow population flows. The advantages of this strategy are numerous: local neighborhood penetration, message identification, constant daily visibility, and effective frequency value. In the last three months, posters that have been tailored for display advertising have been placed in ethnic newspapers of the six targeted API groups. As calls come through the Info Line, callers immediately receive proper information, counseling, on site rapid results testing, and enter case management at APICHA.

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