SHCPP's Ground-Breaking Campaign Tackles the Stigma around Those Living with HIV

TBWA\Dublin had launched a ground-breaking new HSE Sexual Health and Crisis Pregnancy Programme (SHCPP) campaign addressing stigma around those living with HIV.

Stigma and false information around the condition is a real problem for those living with HIV. It’s crucially important to keep the public informed when it comes to advances in treatment and how living with HIV has changed in the last few decades. Tackling these stigmas benefits both those living with HIV and the Irish public as a whole.

TBWA\Dublin worked in close consultation with the HSE team and a panel of community representatives to create clear messaging around effective treatment, living a long and healthy life with HIV, passing HIV on to partners and the global U=U (undetectable equals untransmittable) campaign, which was referenced for the first time in a government communication. Photographer Adrian Stewart shot the portraits for the campaign.

Shane Kelly, senior strategist at TBWA\Dublin said: “Our research made it abundantly clear that HIV diagnosis and the stigma around it can have a paralysing effect. It's hard to manage a new reality when you're overwhelmed. This feeling stops people from accessing the treatment they need to get on with their lives in good health. A useful insight for encouraging people past those barriers was the suggestion that ‘undetectable’ is like a third status: a position from which HIV positive people are free and able to thrive.”

Des Creedon, executive creative director added: “There is so much information out there about HIV that is incorrect. We knew we needed to get the right information out there in a clear and uncomplicated manner and counteract the stigma that is so often unfairly associated with HIV and more importantly of those who have it. Effective treatment means you can't pass on HIV to partners or anybody else. Undetectable is untransmittable. This is fact. It's not rumours or hearsay. It's important that people with HIV understand this and even more so that society as a whole understands.”