Drama Downunder
Also: Stop the Drama Downunder
Victorian HIV/STI testing campaign for gay men (2008-2009) by the Victorian AIDS Council with Burnet Institute evaluation, using humorous images of underpants and 'downunder' to push regular testing.
- Years
- 2008–now
- Country
- Australia
- Topic
- HIV/STI
- Asks people to
- Start
- Strategy
- HumorSimple instruction
- Channel
- OutdoorPrintSocial (organic)Website
- Audience
- AdultsMenGay men in Victoria.
Evidence
ObservationalMixed
Survey of 295 gay men and clinic data (Pedrana 2012): aided awareness 86%; awareness linked to STI testing in past 6 months (prevalence ratio 1.5), and clinic testing rose. A longer time-series (Wilkinson 2016) found testing was rising before and after, with only gonorrhea testing up significantly after the campaign.
Sponsor (who paid)
- Victorian AIDS Council NGO, creator
- Victorian Department of Health Foreign government, funder
Credits (who made it)
Not recorded yet.
Related campaigns
- Healthy Penis 2002–now
Sources
- Pedrana A et al. Stop the drama Downunder: a social marketing campaign increases HIV/sexually transmitted infection knowledge and testing in Australian gay men. Sex Transm Dis 2012;39(8):651-8 evaluation · 2012 · DOI 10.1097/OLQ.0b013e318255df06 · PMID 22801349
- Wilkinson AL et al. The Impact of a Social Marketing Campaign on HIV and Sexually Transmissible Infection Testing Among Men Who Have Sex With Men in Australia. Sex Transm Dis 2016;43(1):49-56 evaluation · 2016 · DOI 10.1097/OLQ.0000000000000380 · PMID 26650997
- Pedrana AE et al. No drama: key elements to the success of an HIV/STI-prevention mass-media campaign. Qual Health Res 2014;24(5):695-705 evaluation · 2014 · DOI 10.1177/1049732314529024 · PMID 24699904
- Lim MS et al. Young people's comparative recognition and recall of an Australian Government Sexual Health Campaign. Int J STD AIDS 2015 evaluation · 2015 · DOI 10.1177/0956462414542259 · PMID 25006041
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. Creator and funder from secondary memory; confirm. Lim 2015 added 2026-10-22 (openalex-deep queue; DOI checked on Crossref and PMID via NCBI esummary 2026-10-22; queue gave 2014, the online date): festival sample aged 16-29, 27% recognised Drama Downunder and 25% of those recalled its message (comparison with the national STI campaign). Evidence unchanged.
Record cases/vic-drama-downunder.json, updated 2026-10-22· Link to this campaign