The Controversial Social Marketing Campaign AIDS is a Mass Murderer - Coursework Example

AIDS is a Mass Murderer Inserts His/Her Inserts Grade Inserts (11, January, Introduction Inthe past century medical science has achieved many great feats but still there are diseases prevalent in our times that are not curable. One of those diseases is HIV or Aids and it has taken many lives all over the world. Through preventive measures, however, the disease can be curtailed significantly and for that purpose awareness campaigns are designed. The aim of such campaigns is to educate the masses about the harms of Aids and about the preventive measures that can be taken. Advertisements are regularly used to target more and more people by governmental and nongovernmental organizations. All such advertisements come under the banner of social marketing. Social marketing is widely used to educate teenagers and adults about the perils of Aids. In this paper we will be analyzing a social marketing campaign that is somewhat controversial. We will be discussing the main characteristic of the ad as a social marketing campaign. The effectiveness of this social marketing campaign will also be assessed in the region of United States of America. AIDS is a Mass Murderer The campaign ‘AIDS is a Mass Murder’ is a German social marketing campaign for awareness of Aids. The commercial is quite controversial and has started a debate on social marketing ethics. The ad was aired in September 2009 on German television and it shows a couple having passionate sex and later it is revealed that the man in the ad is Adolf Hitler (Moore, 2009). The aim of the campaign is to increase awareness of Aids in young Germans to start using protection in order to protect themselves from the deadly disease. It is true that AIDS mainly affect the young adults of the population (Greener, 2002) and this is why most awareness campaigns are aimed at this segment of the population. But this particular social marketing ad raised serious ethical issues. The main criticism of the ad is that it portrays people with HIV as mass murdered and compares them to Hitler (Hans, 2009). People who suffer from AIDS already live a life that is stigmatizing and this particular ad will just increase their suffering and will also marginalize them. This is why this social marketing awareness campaign is considered questionable. The presence of Adolf Hitler in the ad is also something that is disturbing as it devalues the sacrifice of people who lost their lives in the Second World War. The idea of Adolf Hitler having sex does not well with the masses. It associates the act of having sex with the war victims which is again questionable. The main characteristic of the ad is its shocking effect. The aim of the makers of the social marketing advertisement is to make young adults think about AIDS as they feel the issue is neglected in the country. The makers of the ad have tried to start people to think about the advertisement in a more serious manner. This is why the image of Hitler is used because there is no other human that can create a more shocking effect on German people than Adolf Hitler himself. Another feature of the ad is that it fails to communicate how AIDS should be prevented from spreading. Mostly advertisements about social awareness explain how the problem can be solved or prevented however this is not the case in this awareness campaign. No specific message regarding the use of condoms is given in the advertisement. A criticism on the advertisement is that it can deter people from testing for AIDS as it shows AIDS victims and the disease itself in extremely negative light (Moore, M. 2009). The association of AIDS victims and Hitler gives a negative connotation to the whole idea of the AIDS. It makes victims of AIDS as ‘murderers’ which is not good and this can make people refrain from testing for the disease. It is also argued that information given in the advertisement is not accurate because in Europe AIDS patients (who are diagnosed in time) can enjoy a life span similar to a healthy person if they take regular medication (National AIDS Trust, 2009). The ad portrays AIDS as a disease that is a ‘mass murderer’ which is not entirely accurate. How effective will this Campaign be in USA? In this section we will try to find whether ‘AIDS is a Mass Murderer’ campaign will be effective in United States of America. We will take into account the important characteristics of American society when answering this question. We will also keep in mind social marketing ethics in cross cultural context when giving our answer. First of all it is important to understand the dynamics of American society. American society is highly individualistic with majority of the population of European Americans. American society is also diverse and notable minorities are African Americans, Hispanics, and Asians. In such a diverse society cultural element is extremely important it forms the basis of the differences in the attitudes and believes of the people of the country. United States of America is also a developed country where education standards are very high. This is why people are also health conscious to a certain extent. The presence of high quality medical facilities also strives to keep the population of the country healthy. Therefore awareness of medical problems like AIDS is not very low in the country. The awareness level in the country may be high regarding diseases like AIDS but still many people in the country are affected with the disease. Estimates show that around 1.1 million people in the country are living with HIV (Dwyer, 2009). This high number shows that the problem is still prevalent in the country and therefore more awareness is needed to solve the problem. The group that is most vulnerable to the disease is the African American population (Chu & Selwyn, 2008). This is due to the fact that African Americans are not educated and poverty levels within the group are higher compared to other sections of the country. It seems that social awareness programs do not reach this particular group and this elongates the suffering of the people. As mentioned before, young adults are mostly vulnerable to HIV because they are at a point of life where they have started having sexual intercourse. It is therefore imperative that students of colleges and universities should be gathered and they should be informed about the evils of the disease. Social marketing should be aimed at this particular audience so that spread of HIV is controlled in the country. Young people are also at a point in their lives where they want to take risks and therefore they should be told to understand the consequences of their actions on their lives and the lives of others. We have till now explained the characteristics of the American society and have given a basic outline of a social marketing campaign that may be helpful for the society. The main target groups are identified and factors responsible for the spread of the disease are also taken into account. Now we will see what literature on social marketing and ethics has to say about an effective HIV awareness campaigns. The definition of ethics is different in different countries. Culture and social norms have a lot to do with the concept of ethics in a particular country. This is why apart from some acts it is impossible to take an abolitionist stance on an ethical matter. Ethics is dictated by the social and cultural norms of a particular society for example equality will have different meanings in India and United States of America because Indian cultures have a caste system. This is why perception of equality may be entirely different in India as compared to United States. It was found that culture had a strong influence on the perception of ethical problems (Armstrong & Sweeney, 1994). This substantiates the point we made above that different cultures have a different way of looking into things. Ethics is therefore not something absolute rather it is relative in nature. Moreover study suggests that cross cultural similarity is not an indicator of similar marketing ethics (Cicic, Marta, Rao, & Singhapakdi, 2001). This is an important insight because some may believe that Europe and United States of America have a similar perception of ethical values in marketing. There is in real many similarities between cultures of United States and Europe but this important study informs that ethics and perception of right or wrong may not be similar in the two countries therefore it is not possible to reject the effectiveness of the campaign because it didn’t work and attracted a lot of criticism. The social awareness campaign that involves Adolf Hitler was received shockingly by the European people as they were the main victims of his aggression. But the same sentimental reaction might not be seen in United States. It is true that Hitler is not at all liked by the people of the country but still he is not hated as much as he is abhorred in Europe. This is one reason to believe that the campaign might not shock the young adults of the country (USA) in a way as makers of the campaign hoped for the German adults. The main idea behind the ad was to increase awareness by shifting the focus of the people on an issue that is getting serious every day. In this regard however this campaign might not create the same result in United States. Also the major section of the population that is affected by AIDS is the African American community. This community also didn’t suffer directly at the hands of Adolf Hitler therefore his figure in the advertisement might not create the same effect. In today’s world of information it is expected by marketers to behave in an ethical manner and responsibilities of marketers have increased greatly (Smith, 1995). Consumers expect more ethical marketing from marketers and the work of marketers is scrutinized. This is why it is expected that this social marketing campaign will raise similar ethical questions as raised in Germany. In United States consumers are aware of their rights therefore this social marketing campaign will also attract criticism. But this does not mean necessarily that this campaign will not be effective in the country. For answering our question in a more objective manner we will have to look into more research. Social marketing is different from traditional marketing. This is because in traditional marketing products are sold while in social marketing strongly held beliefs and taboos are targeted (Andreasen, 2001). This is why it is an area which is difficult to tread sometimes because it attracts controversy. Imagine how difficult it would be to promote the use of contraception in a country where child control is considered non-religious! These are the issues that social marketers regularly face in their work. The main reason why diseases like AIDS exist is that the beliefs and attitudes of the people have not changed. They don’t understand the severity of the situation and tend to ignore the protective measures. Also the disease has become somewhat a taboo in society because it is usually perceived as sex-related disease. AIDS is not always sexually transmitted but contrary to the fact public belief has been shaped against the disease and its victims. The marginalization of victims is something that implodes the situation because people do not even learn from the patients. Also the disease is not diagnosed in time therefore treatment is not always possible. This makes the victims of AIDS live their life in solitude and die without getting the attention of the masses. Therefore the deterrent effect regarding AIDS is not present in societies. The same is true for American society because the main AIDS patients are African Americans. They are already a marginalized group having high level of poverty and crime rate. The effect of AIDS in this community is compounded as patients become more marginalized and death rates spike as a result of the virus. A study indicated that urban African American mothers are more prone to HIV virus even though they posses information regarding the effects of AIDS and how to counter it (Kareem et. al. 1991). The study concluded that apart from information about the disease social marketing campaigns should also help women communicate about the preventive measures with their husbands and teenage children (1991). This tells us an important dynamics of social marketing. The present campaign of Hitler and AIDS is just telling the people that HIV is a dangerous disease and therefore all have to aware of it. But it does not provide any information whatsoever about how to prevent the disease. The aspect of communicating is also not covered in the advertisement. This is a major area where the social marketing advertisement is lacking. It is also not necessary that people who have information about AIDS are actually using contraception or are getting tested regularly. A study found out that an awareness campaign can be informative but still people might not be motivated to get tested for the virus on a regular basis (Gold et al. 2010). This is another interesting dimension of social marketing vis-à-vis AIDS prevention. Testing is something that should be argued in the advertisements so that people are actually motivated to go in medical facilities and actually test for the disease. Early diagnosis can also save lives of AIDS patients. Male members of the society are usually careless about their sex life because of many ill founded beliefs like health and sexual problems are only women concerns (Cheng, Kotler, & Lee, 2010). Such attitudes are the reason why sexual problems are prevalent in the society. The adventurous approach of men towards life is a reason for the spread of this disease. It is possible to decrease the spread of the disease by educating people to use condoms. There is an 80 percent chance that heterosexual couples will not transmit the disease if they use a male or a female condom (Cayley, 2004). Such facts are also important for social marketing campaigns. Therefore with all the information we collected from out research we conclude that the social marketing campaign ‘AIDS is a Mass Murderer’ would not have been effective in United States because it misses many important points that are vital for the success of a social marketing campaign against AIDS. Conclusion In United States of America, African American community is the most vulnerable group to AIDS virus and they will not be shocked by the picture of Hitler as they will not have any recollections about him. They are also not educationally superior therefore they might not be aware of the historical significance of the man. This is why the shocking effect of the campaign will not be produced through the advertisement. Moreover the campaign lacks facts and information about how to communicate about the disease with teenagers and partner. The campaign will raise ethical question in USA too but it will not be effective in reducing the spread of the disease. Bibliography Andreasen, A. 2001. Ethics in Social Marketing. London: Georgetown University Press Armstrong & Sweeney. 1994. Industry type, culture, mode of entry and perceptions of international marketing ethics problems: A cross-cultural comparison. Journal of Business Ethics, 13(10): 775-785 Cayley Jr. 2004. 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