A Levi’s® customer or employee in South Africa is about 10 times more likely to be infected by HIV than their counterparts in most parts of Asia, Europe and the Americas.
That’s a sobering fact.
And it’s one of the reasons Levi Strauss South Africa worked with us at Matchboxology to launch Red for Life, a highly influential – sometimes controversial – communications campaign to drive HIV awareness. And save lives.
Red for Life featured celebrities, musical artists and Levi’s®-branded condoms. The campaign continues to make an impact, even five years after its launch.
Why?
One of the reasons is because Levi’s® had the integrity to contribute its most valuable asset – its brand – to address a critical public health challenge.
Putting the Levi’s® logo on a condom or mobile HIV-testing center turned out to be incredibly persuasive.
We tracked the difference between Levi’s® co-branded efforts and those not featuring the Levi’s® logo.
The results shocked even the most cynical experts: We handed out more than 1 million of the Levi’s®-branded condoms and saw a 100% increase in the number of young adults seeking HIV testing.
We salute the corporate guts it took to take such a leap.
Now, someone else has tipped their hat to the campaign as well.
This week, the Red for Life HIV prevention campaign won the first Ubuntu award at the prestigious South African Advertising Awards – the Loeries.
The Ubuntu, new this year, recognizes brands contributing to positive social and environmental change.
It’s impossible, even irresponsible to try to help solve a problem you don’t understand. So Matchboxology brought Levi’s® together with experts in all areas of HIV work – USAID, Johns Hopkins Health Education, New Start and a host of others.
The Levi’s® brand helped amplify the collective intelligence, hard work and reach of these organizations to further the cause.
We at Matchboxology are proud to share this award with the Levi’s® brand and all of those involved in this campaign. We accept it humbly – knowing that there is more work to be done to stop the spread of HIV and AIDS.
