America Responds to AIDS was launched in 1987 to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS among all Americans. It was created in response to a 1985 Congres- sional mandate that required the CDC to educate the public about HIV/AIDS. The campaign was developed by Ogilvy and rolled out in the following phases from 1987 through 1996: • The National AIDS Mailing to all U.S. households in 1988 provided facts about HIV/AIDS transmission and prevention. • In 1989 a campaign was targeted to minorities, sexually active young adults, and injection drug users — all at greatest risk of HIV infection. • Adult influencers, especially parents talking to their children about AIDS, were the focus of the 1990 phase of the campaign. • Voluntary testing and treatment for HIV infection was addressed in 1992. • HIV risk-reduction behaviors, including abstinence and condom use, were highlighted in 1994. • Targeted PSAs to audiences disproportionately affected — African Americans and Latinos — were conducted in 1995 and 1996. Print and broadcast public service announcements (PSAs) profiling “real people” affected by HIV/AIDS were produced and marketed to mass media, generating more than $320 million of public service airtime in the first 5 years. The campaign promoted the newly created CDC AIDS Hotline, where callers could talk with counselors and receive free information in the mail. The federal government spent $7.36 million developing the first five phases, including $3.46 million for production, $2.06 million for marketing and distribution, and $1.84 million for development. Between the campaign’s launch in October 1987 and January 1992 the PSAs aired more than 59,000 times, with a commercial airtime value of $67.8 million. The CDC estimates that, on average, American adults between 18 and 54 years old saw campaign PSAs at least 56 times over that 33 month period. - Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Evolution of an epidemic: 25 years of HIV/AIDS media campaigns in the U.S. Menlo Park, CA, June 2006, p. 26 [https://kaiserfamilyfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/7515.pdf]

David J. Sencer CDC Museum