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It's Never Just HIV

New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene TV and subway campaign (launched December 2010) for gay and bisexual men. Its graphic ads linked HIV to other conditions such as bone loss, dementia and anal cancer, and drew public criticism as a fear appeal.

Years
2010–now
Country
United States
Topic
HIV/STI
Asks people to
Start
Strategy
Fear appeal
Channel
OutdoorTVWebsite
Audience
AdultsMen
HIV-negative men who have sex with men in New York City.

Evidence

ObservationalUnknown

2011 National HIV Behavioral Surveillance survey of 447 HIV-negative or status-unknown MSM in NYC (Reilly 2016): 39% had seen the campaign, mostly on the subway; Black and Latino men were less likely than white men to have seen it. Only 9.4% of those who saw it reported changing sexual or health behaviors.

Sponsor (who paid)

  • New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene State local government, funder and creator

Credits (who made it)

Not recorded yet.

Related campaigns

Sources

  1. Reilly KH et al. It's Never Just HIV: Exposure to an HIV Prevention Media Campaign and Behavior Change Among Men Who Have Sex with Men Participating in the National HIV Behavioral Surveillance System in New York City. LGBT Health 2016;3(4):314-8 evaluation · 2016 · DOI 10.1089/lgbt.2015.0016 · PMID 26651497

Research notes

Created 2026-10-22 by literature mining (PubMed/OpenAlex); evidence level, outcome and findings are paraphrased from the evaluation abstracts, full texts not read. No credits: no page naming an agency was checked. Launch month from secondary memory (December 2010); confirm on NYC Health press releases. endYear unknown. Procurement search 2026-10-22: NYC City Record awards show DOHMH's 2008 ad-agency contracts for public education and media campaigns (The Sloan Group; Bandujo Donker & Brothers; USD 4.95M each) and HN Media and Marketing as media buyer from 2010. Possible vendors; no award names this campaign.

Record cases/nyc-its-never-just-hiv.json, updated 2026-10-22· Link to this campaign