Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 25, 1993 TAG: 9303250084
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MAG POFF STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
ADS ADDRESS AIDS-TEST FEARS
"You can't be positive until you test negative." It's a message the Roanoke Valley will be seeing and hearing a lot beginning next month.The theme will hit the media April 5 in a public relations campaign mounted by the Advertising Federation of the Roanoke Valley.
The beneficiary of this year's contribution of creativity by the club of advertising professionals is the HIV testing program at the Roanoke Health Department.
The ads were devised without charge by the federation. They carry the message that "it's safe and OK for people to come," said Lee Redecke, a public health nurse who coordinates the department's AIDS program, which includes anonymous testing.
Despite the severity of the disease, the advertising has a light tone. "They made me laugh," said Redecke. "They did a beautiful job of it."
And she expects "to see a tidal wave of people wanting to be tested."
The campaign will be pervasive. Besides the usual newspaper, radio and television commercials, the federation created posters, bumper stickers and bus placards.
The members even made posters to be mounted in public toilets that their creators are calling "potty signs."
The latter are a little more risque than the mass-media versions, conceded Russell McKenney of Russell McKenney Advertising. But, he said, they suit the medium.
McKenney is chairman of the effort that began in October. The aim was to create an advertising campaign to increase awareness of HIV testing.
The ads, especially those on television, had to be palatable to a wide audience and neither macabre nor offensive, he said.
The federation decided that ads designed for college campuses and magazines, on the other hand, "could be a little more provocative than TV ads."
Yet, said McKenney, the campaign had to be focused, targeted at people who should be tested.
Members of the committee included Chuck Repede of Repede Design, Brett Lague of John Lambert Associates and Todd Marcum of the Roanoke Times & World-News.
Others who contributed were Greg Vaughn Photography, Jim Cates of Voiceworks Studios, Steve Hobbs and Grant Plaskos of Eye Video Productions, Progress Press, Lamar Advertising, P&C Media and Group One Sales.
Media are donating space and time for the promotions as a public service.
Redecke, the public health nurse, said the Roanoke Valley testing center at the city department is both free and anonymous.
The center is open from 3 to 6 p.m. every Monday. Clients there take a card with a bar-coded number without giving their names. They use the card again when they return for test results.
The number of people getting tested has increased steadily from 578 in 1990 to 820 in 1991 and 1,339 last year. She said the clinic has hired extra help to take care of the load.
Redecke said the number of clients depends on "getting the word out" about the free testing, which is why the campaign should boost the number of people tested.
People who engage in certain kinds of behaviors, she said, are "getting the message" that they need to be tested.