The Balbir Pasha Campaign

Operation Lighthouse

1. PSI implemented a five year (2001-2005) HIV/AIDS STI intervention programme in India entitled ‘Operation Lighthouse (OPL)’

2. Across twelve port communities along the east and west coasts of India

3. Deploying a set of integrated communication and service provision strategies to decrease the spread of the AIDS

Three Principles of the OPL approach

1. Targeting –Allocates scarce resources to activities that promise the highest impact among those likely to contract and transmit the virus.

2. Integration – In an integrated approach, mass media and inter-personal communication are designed to inform, motivate and create demand for services and products.

3. Information – Changing behaviour is an iterative process, over time. Steady production, analysis and use of good information feeds into continuous programme improvement.

The Campaign

1. Now, health communication campaign in India, particularly HIV/AIDS communications, were largely informative educational in nature and rarely addressed the consumer directly (‘Let’s keep Mumbai AIDS free’ or ‘HIV/AIDS does not spread through touch’).

2. HIV/AIDS communication campaigns, in general, have perpetually portrayed the disease in a completely morbid and fearful manner.

3. Communication campaigns have failed to personalise risk for the individual.

Campaign Objectives: Filling A Need

Primary targets for prevention message Young men in Mumbai between the ages of 18-40, who hail

form lower socio-economic groups and are among the highest risk for HIV infection.

Key communication objectives: To increase perception of HIV/AIDS risk from unprotected sex

with non-regular partners by personalising the message and creating empathy through identifiable real-life situations (Attitudinal Change)

To generate discussion about HIV/AIDS among the target populations and opinion leaders in order to facilitate understanding and knowledge acquisition. (Changing Social Norms)

To motivate people to access HIV/AIDS helpline and VCT services (Behavioural Change)

Consumer Insight

Men in general population feel that clients of sex workers are vulnerable to AIDS but fail to recognise themselves to be at risk (NACO BSS 2002)

Strong link between alcohol consumption and high risk sexual activity

Young men harbour negative attitude towards condom use

There is a failure to recognise “healthy looking” people as potential carrriers of HIV

Campaign Themes

Main objective- to increase risk perception

3 campaign themes generated from consumer insight:

1. Alcohol and high risk behaviour: “I often use condoms, but when I get drunk, I sometimes forget”

2. Faith in ‘regular” partner: “ I only have physical relations with this one person and hence I am safe”

3. Failure to recognise asymptomatic carrier- “If a person looks healthy, he/she must be free from HIV/AIDS

Execution: Introducing Balbir Pasha

Bedrock of the campaign was the principle that people can learn by observing the consequences of others’ behaviour (Social learning theory, A.Bandura).

Creation of an alter ego- Balbir Pasha

If the symbolic model of “Balbir Pasha” engages in behaviour that may put him at risk, the consumer would be vicariously motivated to avoid repeating this behaviour

Surround and Engage:Effective Media Selection

Mix of Various Media

1. Outdoor communication in the red light area – As men in this target group frequent sex workers, placing messages on billboards and bus shelters in this area helped the campaign achieve high reach and visibility.

2. Outdoor communication and public transport – With over 4 million people traveling the Mumbai train network daily, many of whom are men practicing high risk sexual behaviours, placing posters in trains and at train stations allowed PSI to geographically target this population while also creating a buzz in the general population.

3. Outdoor communication at cinema halls – The high popularity of Hindi and Marathi films provides an opportunity to communicate complex messages to a captive audience through the use of various outdoor media, especially as many B and C grade cinema halls are located in areas where this population resides and/or frequent often.

Contd..

Surround and Engage:Effective Media Selection

4. Mix of TV and radio channels – As the target group profile is quite heterogeneous with regard to ethnic/language groups, religious communities, socio-economic profile etc., there was a need to feature messages across a broad mix of television networks and radio stations. This also allowed the campaign to achieve maximum reach to the various general populations of Mumbai.

5. Print media - Next to television, print media has the highest penetration in the target group, and therefore the ‘Balbir Pasha’ campaign was featured in major language papers (Hindi/Marathi) available in Mumbai. This promoted high visibility of the campaign’s message via a medium that allows the consumer to engage himself and ponder as he receives information.

Surround and Engage:Effective Media Selection

Campaign Roll Out

5 phases over a period of 4 months

As each phase revealed progressively gossip value of campaign increased

Teaser Campaign

Theme 1

Alcohol

Theme 2 Regular

Partner

Theme 3 Healthy

Partner

Theme 4 Sadhan

Helpline

1. Teaser – Building Intrigue (Nov 11 – Nov 30, 2002): The first phase of the campaign was aimed at building intrigue and cutting through the clutter of advertising in Mumbai through a cleverly created ‘teaser’ campaign. This teaser campaign also served to build intrigue, and prepare the campaign for subsequent phase. The ‘teaser’ campaign, which ran all media channels discussed above, depicted Mumbai is typical lower and middle income men asking eac other the following question ‘Win Balbir Pasha get AIDS’?

2. Main Campaign – Three Themes (Dec 1, 2002 – January 27, 2003) – The second phase was more strategic, in that it leveraged key insights and comprised of three personalized messages targeted at making these individuals question their own behaviour.

3. Connect to Help-Line (January 28 – February 11, 2003) – Final stage comprised messaging that directly approached the consumer, and asked them to access ‘Saadhan’ HIV/AIDS help-line that PSI has established. ‘I don’t want to become Balbir Pasha……. What should I do? Call the Saadhan Helpline if you have any questions on HIV/AIDS’.

Campaign Roll-Out

The Campaign Creatives

The Immediate Response

‘Balbir Pasha’ icon became entrenched in popular culture.

Buzz – Numerous press and TV articles and reports were generated hailing the sheer audacity and refreshing boldness of the campaign. Dominated mind share of the Mumbai audience

Achieved phenomenal reach

Few critics strongly voices their discontent from the time the second theme of regular partners. Specifically aimed at the television commercials rather than the outdoor billboards and posters

Campaign was perceived to be ‘anti-women’ as implying that HIV is passed on from women to men.

Others felt that the campaign was not ‘complete’ as they felt it only focused on the (hetero) mode of transmission of HIV/AIDS.

Significant Consumer Impact

TNS MODE gathered data through interviews with TG

Noticeability- 1 out of 4 recalled ‘Balbir Pasha”

spontaneously Source of recall identified as posters in

trains (86%), while hoardings, TV and newspaper also cited

More than 50% recalled main message “use condomn in high risk sexual activity”

Comprehension- Over 1/3rd stated that one should not interact

with regular partners without condomn 74% found campaign useful and interesting 88% found it believable

Attitude/ behaviour Change shift in risk perception from 39% to 56% if

visited healthy looking sex workers 54% discussed campaign with others 28% recalled helpline and 60% said they might

call 250% increase in mumber of calls made post

execution of the campaign

Significant Consumer Impact

Why was Balbir Pasha Successful? Consumer Insight

Building of Intrigue

Optimal Media Mix

Link with On Ground Activities

Infiltration into Popular Culture

Hard Hitting Messages