The Red Cross launches HIV awareness campaign

The British Red Cross is launching a digital campaign to raise awareness of HIV among teenagers and young adults. It will launch today (November 26) across social networking sites such as MySpace.

The campaign, called HIV: What’s the Story?, will include videos of three fictional characters with related stories that are affected by HIV. It will be supported by a microsite that will show video clips of young Red Cross volunteers who deliver HIV training and awareness programmes in schools and youth groups.

Visitors to the microsite will be able to share their personal stories within Bebo and other social networking sites.

British Red Cross new media manager, Dorothea Arndt, says: “The purpose of the campaign is not to give out health and education messages, other sites already do this. Instead, our main aim is to create a forum for young people to debate the issues as they see them.”

The campaign was created by Enable Interactive, which won the business following a three-way pitch against undisclosed agencies.