LIT Advertising Awards Gold

2025

ENDING HIV: THE POWER OF PREVENTION

Entrant Company

Alpha Business Images

Category

Integrated Marketing - Integrated Marketing Campaign

Client's Name

Dallas County Health and Human Services - EHE

Country / Region

United States

The team's biggest challenge was how to model candid, educational, non-judgmental, destigmatizing, non-awkward conversations about sex, condoms, STIs, and HIV. Our campaigns were simple yet groundbreaking, with real, judgment-free conversations—full of humor, authenticity, and vulnerability—to dismantle decades of stigma around STIs and HIV. Flipping the traditional public health communication styles with GenZ slang and a youth culture tone sparked conversations about sex and STIs in a way teens couldn’t ignore. Our TikTok-inspired videos, interactive quizzes, and flip cards drove engagement and empowered the audience to learn, set boundaries, and take ownership of protecting their sexual health.



Our “Prevention is Power” messaging was built to work with the existing messaging framework of “TALK. TEST. TREAT.,” which modeled how to have awkward conversations, the importance of testing, prevention (including PrEP), and getting treatment for STIs and HIV. We created audience-specific videos featuring women and gay teens, along with over a dozen interview-type videos with people who have HIV, who have a family member or friend with HIV, or who work with HIV-positive people.



We brought together multiple campaign elements—including a teen landing page, videos, radio spots, quizzes, social media, and digital ads—into a cohesive campaign with consistent, sex-positive, destigmatizing messaging.



Our approach crossed conventional boundaries by blending education with entertainment to engage teens with shorter attention spans and a tendency to tune out authoritative messaging. By normalizing authentic conversation and leveraging real stories, the work transcended the objective of raising awareness to create genuine behavior shifts around testing and prevention. This breakthrough thinking helped to write a new story that replaced fear and misinformation with positivity and empowerment to show teens that taking care of their sexual health was accessible, relatable, and actionable.

Credits

Partner, President, Creative Director
Dawn Davidson
CEO, Founder
Sophia Johnson
ACD
Satish Dusa
Senior Digital Art Director
Sarah Green
Senior Account Executive
Srikusum Rai
Copywriter
Lisa Chacon
More Gold Winners
Event
2025
LIT Advertising Awards - AI INNOVATION GARDEN
Banco BPI Grupo CaixaBank

Entrant Company

United Creative

Category

Event - Tech

Website
2025
LIT Advertising Awards - M.C. Bread Distributor Co. Website Redesign
M.C. Bread Distributor Co.

Entrant Company

Webdev.com

Category

Website - Cultural

Video
2025
LIT Advertising Awards - Kyle Mathers
Norwich University

Entrant Company

Saraa Kami

Category

Video - School / Universities

Outstanding Agency Awards
2025
LIT Advertising Awards - Hawke Media: Marketing Agency of the Year

Entrant Company

Hawke Media

Category

Outstanding Agency Awards - Outstanding Marketing Agency