Public health campaigns in developing countries are developed by public health officials and communication professionals in those countries. Sometimes, foreign aid assists in the educational and resource provision to accompany those campaigns. When those campaigns are finished they traditionally have a print component (posters, flyers, etc) and a resource component (free condoms, birth control, vaccines, etc). Without big budgets, this is the best that public health officials can do.
The trained sexual health advisor in the video below doesn't think these tactics work. In fact, she's taking down the public health provided condom usage promotion posters. She thinks the plain white packaged free condoms are making condom usage boring. She's on a mission to bring the sexy back, to condoms.
The take-away here is that marketing socially responsible products doesn't have to be boring. Smart branding, coolness, and relating to your audience are just as important in public health campaigns are they are selling anything else. The other take away is that communications professionals and public health policy folks aren't the only ones that need to be around the table when campaigns are conceptualized. Those on the front lines have the best connection to the lives that everyone is trying to save.
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