BetaHCF Case Studies Library is in beta. We're still adding campaigns and fixing things.
HCF Case Studies Library

← All campaigns · Open in the library

profiles.nlm.nih.gov

AIDS Prevention (Ad Council / AmFAR / National AIDS Network)

“Help stop AIDS. Use a condom.”

Launched in September 1988, a few months before the first World AIDS Day, with Surgeon General C. Everett Koop at the press conference. AEF calls it the first American advertising campaign to use the word 'condom'. It ran until 1990.

Years
1988–1990
Country
United States
Topic
HIV/STI
Asks people to
Start
Strategy
Simple instruction
Channel
OutdoorPrintRadioTV
Audience
AdultsYoung adults

Evidence

NoneUnknown

No outcome evaluation found. A Harvard Business School case series ('Ad Council's AIDS Campaign') documents how the program was developed and taken up, not its effects.

Sponsor (who paid)

  • Ad Council Ad Council (pro bono), campaign producer
  • American Foundation for AIDS Research (AmFAR) NGO, sponsor
  • National AIDS Network NGO, sponsor

Credits (who made it)

Related campaigns

Sources

  1. AIDS Prevention (1988-1990) (ANA Educational Foundation) history
  2. Ad Council Campaigns That Have Made a Difference (ANA Educational Foundation) history
  3. Koop, remarks at press conference announcing the Advertising Council's new campaign on AIDS and condom use, New York, 27 Sep 1988 (NLM Profiles in Science) archive · 1988
  4. Ad Council's AIDS Campaign (B): Program Adoption (Harvard Business School case) reference
  5. AIDS Prevention (Ad Council classic campaigns page) sponsor
  6. Ad Council Historical File, RS 13/2/207 (University of Illinois Archives finding aid) archive

Research notes

Credits checked 2026-10-22 against fetched pages: Scali, McCabe, Sloves (AEF overview page, 'Volunteer Agency' line; Ad Council Historical File RS 13/2/207, files dated 1988 to February 1989 catalogued as 'American Foundation for AIDS Research; National AIDS Network/Scali, McCabe, Sloves, Inc.'). Corrected 2026-10-22: credit years changed from 1988-1990 to 1988-1989 to match the archive file dates. A Forbes listing dates the campaign to 1986, which conflicts with Koop's dated 1988 remarks. The Illinois Archives list AIDS among the major campaigns represented in the collection. Illinois Archives retrieval: RS 13/2/207 Historical File, box 8 folders 1-3 and box 150 folder 2. Other candidate series are 13/2/204 Campaign Listings 1942-92, 13/2/218 Campaign Posters 1942-90, 13/2/214 Television PSAs 1963, 1971-92, 1997, 13/2/219 Campaign Files 1966-2004 and 13/2/280 Campaign Video Recordings. The AEF overview dates the campaign 1988-1989; the AEF dedicated page says 1988-1990. Links (#82) checked 2026-10-23: Ad Council pages from the Wayback Machine (adcouncil.org's old campaign pages), the Our History timeline or its case studies; dead campaign sites point to a Wayback copy from the campaign years.

Record cases/ad-council-aids-prevention-1988.json, updated 2026-10-23· Link to this campaign