The Brief

Part of AIDS Concern’s charter is to achieve zero stigma towards people living with HIV in Hong Kong. This work is about confronting the issue and eliciting an immediate response in order to address it. We used a coffee truck to bring this issue out into the open and force people to question their preexisting beliefs.

Creative Execution

The best way to address problems is through conversation. And what better way to start a conversation than over coffee? We sent one coffee truck to five busy areas in Hong Kong, serving complimentary coffee with no conditions. Promoters invited pedestrians up for a cup. A sign on the truck read, “Free coffee. Made by people living with HIV”. No lecture about HIV. No persuasion to accept the coffee. The idea was a world’s first. Ultimately, only half of the pedestrians accepted the coffee. This created a storm of conversation online.

Describe the creative solution to the brief/objective.

In terms of targeting, it’s impossible to segment those who carry the stigma and those who do not. Such segregation would ironically make AIDS Concern itself a discriminator. The general public of Hong Kong was therefore the target. The strategy was therefore to engage both sides of the issue: both the supporters and the antagonists. Naturally, the harder target to engage with are the antagonist. The insight was that the stigma towards people with HIV is largely caused by fear. Antagonists also see AIDS as a taboo, and are afraid about the subject they were tormented by in earlier years.

Results

2.3 million people were reached by this campaign, breaking records in AIDS Concern’s 25-year history. This is equivalent to a third of Hong Kong’s population. With a campaign budget of US$30K inclusive of media and production costs, that’s US$.013 per person reached. The awareness was greatly amplified by the international coverage that was earned, including over a dozen press articles, two radio interviews, 50 blog posts in five different languages and over 300 social media posts. On Facebook alone, the film of the experience achieved over 3,700 likes, comments and shares. From an independently conducted study, 97% of research respondents say they see people with HIV more positively after watching the film that documented the experience. AIDS-related organisations in France and Taiwan have contracted AIDS Concern to adopt the campaign in their own country. This demonstrates the scalability of such a simple yet disruptive idea.