It seems that the days of hard-hitting campaigns about Aids/HIV are over. In this post three recent examples from Europe. Keywords: User Generated, Flashmob and Responsibility.

The video above is about a project from Milan Italy: World of Mouth against HIV.
Aim is to make people aware of the need to use condoms in order to limit the spread of HIV.
It is user generated. Visitors are ask to send a picture following the theme of the campaign, a condom has to be placed on your tongue.
Photo’s will be published on the campaign website and the best photo’s will be part of a traveling exhibition.
WOM against HIV on: Twitter, Facebook, Flickr.

The second campaign is from the French Sidaction. Sidaction started as a public event in 1994 in France for raising awareness and collecting charitable funds for AIDS. They donate important sums to AIDS charities, AIDS research, institutions specializing in medical care and social aid for those suffering of HIV/AIDS in France and internationally.

The French organisation Sidaction is doing it’s fundraising campaign this year guided with the video above. And at the online donation form visitors can see what is happening with their donation (see below).

Un jour, nous vaincrons le sida. Soutenons la recherche.
Faites un don au 110 ou sur www.sidaction.org, du 3 mars au 11 avril
One day, we defeat AIDS. Support research.
Donate to 110 or www.sidaction.org, March 3 to April 11

The third campaign is called The Condom Mob. It is from CESVI, a humanitarian, solidarity NGO from Italy. A enormous condom was placed in front of the university of Milan and Genoa in the beginning of December 2009.
It was a bet, CESVI wants to get more than 100 students into the condom. And it was successful. With this bet the raised funds for the fight against aids/HIV in Zimbabwe.

The choice of doing this mob in front of a university was on purpose: approximately 45% of newly infected with HIV are young people between 15 and 24 years.

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Marc van Gurp is the founder of Osocio which examines the world of advertising in the social change/non-profit landscape. Marc resides in Amsterdam.

From RWJF’s Pioneer Portfolio:

In a world with abundant, actionable health data – both from electronic medical records and our everyday observations – we will be empowered to make better decisions and our relationships with doctors may significantly change.

I really appreciate this video for a variety of reasons. Not only do I think the way these conversations were visualized is cool but it really points out the key words and ideas that are forming this e-Patient movement. When I first started reading about about the ideas to transform the healthcare system, I got excited because it began to focus on the patient, the individual, as someone taking responsibility for their health; as someone who actually wanted to understand what was going on. For me that resonates with the public health sector in which large groups of people are observed.

If a few individuals began leading this charge and spreading the idea of a balanced patient-provider relationship, then maybe this movement would be something of substance. Not only spreading to health policy and empowering those who readily have access to health information but also changing the landscape for those who get the folded arms and shaking heads from the healthcare system. Public health is about people, it’s about reducing health disparities and giving people the chance they need to lead healthy lives. Often times there are walls and barriers preventing that – it’s time to break them down.

Intent is the new demographic – What the Mobile Web Means for Health: Jane Sarasohn-Kahn highlights how people use the mobile web and how that translates into action for the health world. [healthpopuli.com]

Behavioral Economics and Public Health at TED 2010: Paul Tarini of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Pioneer Portfolio reflects on a talk he enjoyed at the recent TED event. Check out Paul’s thoughts on competitions for health innovation in an interview I did with him. [rwjf.org]

GE Healthcare Introduces the Vscan: GE unveils the world’s smallest portable ultrasound device! Below is a video (also on the link) of the Vscan in action – [medgadget.com]

For me this is the most shocking visual used in a campaign lately. Not only because I experienced the subject in my friends network but also it is about a forgotten group in our society, the elderly.

“Over 50% of all suicides are committed by senior citizens.”

This ad is from Adam LeAdam, the charity for the elderly in Israel and is made by Shimoni Finkelstein Draftfcb.
Because the ad is hard-hitting style I placed the ad after the break.

According to suicide.org elderly suicide (age 65 and older) comprise about 13% of the U.S. population, they account for over 18% of all suicides. The most common cause for elderly suicide, as for all suicides, is untreated depression. But also the feeling of a completed and finished life.
An untreated depression can be cured and prevention is important. A completed life needs support.

That is what’s happening in this ad. It isn’t about prevention, neither about suicide support. No choice is made. The only call to action is naming the charity.

What do you think: is it a good decision not to make a choice?

Agency:
Shimoni Finkelstein Draftfcb,Tel Aviv, Israel
Additional credits:
Executive Creative Director: Kobi Barki
Creative Director: Ori Ganot
Art Director: Eldad Levi
Copywriter: Kobi Barki
Photographer: Menahem Reiss

This video is from last year from the same charity and ad agency.
The focus is on the subject that elderly suicide is often unseen.

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Marc van Gurp is the founder of Osocio which examines the world of advertising in the social change/non-profit landscape. Marc resides in Amsterdam.

Last year was the year in which mobile technology in health dropped onto my radar in a big way. Attending an unconference sponsored by Katrin Verclas and MobileActive allowed me the opportunity to meet great people and learn a ton about what is being done in the mobile health field. Since then I translated those ideas into a presentation (see below) and have had the chance to stay in touch with those people making it happen.

2009 also saw official interest from the federal government regarding mHealth with the development of the mHealth Summit sponsored by NIH. One of the things I’ve seen regarding mobiles in public health is focused on the developing world and global health efforts. While that initially drew me to the subject matter – I began thinking about how these technologies could be used on a domestic level, here in the United States.

Here are a few projects I’ve seen being put together here in the States mainly with gov’t focus:

• AIDS.gov, KNOW-IT campaign: Texting your zip code to a short code (566948) to gain locations for getting tested for HIV. Here’s a recent post from them on mobile tech in the future.
• CDC, Text Messaging for Health Information pilot: “CDC has launched a pilot project that is using mobile text messages to quickly share important health information about H1N1 flu and other important health topics such as hurricane preparedness information.”
• Text 4 Baby: New mobile messaging program to help inform expecting and new mothers. It’s an educational program of the National Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Coalition (HMHB).

Really looking forward to seeing these programs and types of programs flourish domestically to leverage the growing use of mobiles.

Feel free to let me know of any other domestic mobile health programs that I should be aware of!

Fighting Cancer with Social Media: A great story of hope and community during a tough time of illness for a young child. Reminds me of my interview with Angela Current not long ago. [newsfiresocialmedia.com]

Architecture and the Human Condition: A look at changing where we live for better health from noted architects, Arakawa and Gins. [aribra.com]

One Small Change campaign on Tumblr: It’s no secret that I’m a fan of the Salt Lake Valley Health Department – I wanted to share the link to their Tumblr (a microblogging platform) page for their One Small Change campaign. A great way to continue on the momentum!

When Awareness Isn’t Enough: Great post by my friend Alex Bornkessel looking at the reasons why awareness building often times falls short of effective behavior change campaigns [fly4change.com]

The scourge of HIV/AIDS is no stranger of topic to those working in the public health field whether in the United States or abroad. Conferences and workshops have been put together to determine effective strategies to spread the message of prevention and awareness in order to stop its deadly.

A fantastic global health organization, PATH (Program for Appropriate Technology in Health), created an innovative way to interact with people for HIV prevention by establishing the Magnet Theater in Kenya. These are the kinds of outside the box thinking that I believe will actually make a difference in disease prevention on a wide range of subjects.

Awareness is of course a great element in figuring out what the problem is but behavior change is a different, trickier issue. My friend and colleague Alex Bornkessel points to this fact very well in a recent blog post. PATH and the Magnet Theater are definitely getting people to take action to change their behaviors.

PATH is an international nonprofit organization that creates sustainable, culturally relevant solutions, enabling communities worldwide to break longstanding cycles of poor health. By collaborating with diverse public- and private-sector partners, we help provide appropriate health technologies and vital strategies that change the way people think and act. Our work improves global health and well-being.

Instead of waiting until the end of the week where I may or may not have the time to wrangle up various links, I’ve decided to put them together in a bundle whenever I come across a few great resources!

New York Focused On Curbing Salt Intake: “Now Mr. Bloomberg has called on restaurant chains and food producers to lower the amount of salt in their products by 25 percent over the next five years. The goal is to reduce the incidence of high blood pressure, a major contributor to heart attacks, strokes and kidney disease.” [NYTimes]

What’s the Point of Health 2.0?: Susannah Fox of the Pew Internet Project brings up an important conversation topic surrounding the Health 2.0 movement (make sure and read the comments!) [e-patients.net]

Communication Focus in Healthcare 2.0: Great video illustrating the evolution of what’s been happening at the nexus of social media and healthcare

Good friend and fellow better health advocate, Chris Parks, co-founder of change:healthcare explains how the company began and various aspects that make it revolutionary as it is helpful.

An Interview with the Co-Founder of change:healthcare from change:healthcare on Vimeo.

Really love what these guys are doing. Follow them on Twitter as well.