Is it wise for PSI India to change their previous communication campaign and

shift gears to mass advertising in its fight against AIDS?

Yes, we believe that PSI India should change their previous communication campaign and shift gears
to mass advertising in its fight against AIDS as the main aim of their project is to bring in behavioral
change in the society which could be better achieved with a mass media campaign. Reasons to go for
it are understated :

• Better penetration - Reaching out to individuals and raising broad awareness about HIV/AIDS would be
a difficult undertaking for IPCs. Furthermore, the IPC can effectively target sex workers in this scenario,
but the issue is with men who refuse to use condoms. As a result, a mass media campaign may be the
most effective way to reach all strata of society, including families, sex workers, truck drivers, port
employees, and sailors, and therefore increase penetration.
• It can be used to spark public conversation about the disease among target demographics and to help
people understand the importance of having safe sex.
• It has also been mentioned in the case that the IPCs counseling is seen as a type of preaching and a
mass media campaign is a more creative way to engage conversation over the topic
• Increased risk perception among those who have been exposed to the campaign as the campaign
provides them with a character they can connect with
Assuming the Mass media campaign is approved, how will the budget be allocated
between different media vehicles?

• The mass media campaign need to maintain the right mix, the first focus would be towards the truckers and drivers
as they have the high number, and they are at high risk. These truckers can be targeted by means of billboards and
we will allocate 25% of our budget for that. Also, we would place these billboards on highways and near Dhabas
because that would give the maximum visibility for the target audiences
• Also, radio ads can be used to target the Truck drivers and casual daily wage workers as they are keen towards radios
and that segment of mass media, and it would be able to reach a huge number of target audience. As compared to
billboards on highways radio ad are expensive, we would put up nearly 35% of our budget towards this.
• Now moving towards the TV ads, we would be making medium investments in them as there are guidelines to what
can be shown on television and the target audience that we want to cover all the segments of society with this
method as they have the highest reach but since they are not specific enough, we would put 20% of our budget
towards TV ads.
• Newspaper ads would be our last channel of communication, this is redundant to a majority of the high-risk audience
as they are mostly illiterate, but this could provide a way to create a bigger impact on the minds of people by looking
at it again and again. Also, what comes in the newspaper is always discussed in the community one way of another so
we would be putting up our remaining budget towards the newspaper ads.