Aids Campaign Case Study

Group 6: AIDS Campaign Case Study

Natalia Wit, Kyle Lan, Camilla Drechsel, Moose Gheith, Jamie Ruan

MKT 3605 DMWA

Problem Statement

        Among all the target groups named in the ad campaign, teenagers are most likely to be persuaded into condom use. Though not the biggest, they are the least educated group. If educated at a young age, they would not become part of the numbers for HIV transmissions of other target groups, such as homosexual men, heterosexual women and the like. Therefore, the number of people being able to spread the virus can be kept to a minimum. Furthermore, compared to other groups, they have shallow comprehension on the subject of condoms, and are more likely to have weak confidence in their attitudes towards condom usage. Thus it is more feasible to change teens´ behaviors since they are young and have less life experience.

Analysis

        Due to the lack of life experience previously mentioned, teenagers have short means-end chains in regards to condom usage. They are unable to link the attributes of condoms to consequences and values to make condoms relevant to them, so they do not have positive feelings towards condom usage. On a personal level, due to their lack of education, teens only have a few salient beliefs which are very vague. According to the Fishbein model below, the beliefs that dissuade teens from condom use are not held strongly and have weak evaluations, therefore there is a slightly negative attitude towards safe sex. For example, they might have the general knowledge that condoms prevent Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs), however the evaluations of the beliefs are not self-relevant. They are not aware of the fact that they are susceptible to STDs and condom usage is the only safe option to prevent infection.

The environment in which teenagers may be in, also plays a role in affecting their behaviors. The normative belief coming from teenagers’ environments is that it doesn’t matter whether or not they use condoms since they hang around people of their own age group. They would not have the motivation to comply with condom usage since everyone else is indifferent towards it. As a result, the attitude towards condoms and the subjective norm are both indifferent. Additionally, the salient belief that condoms are expensive, and are a hassle to get discourages teens from using condoms. Therefore, even if teens` attitudes may be indifferent, the inconvenience of having to go buy them tips the scale and prevents them from using condoms.