National Minority AIDS Council Building Healthier Communities

USCA Sponsor, NMAC, Launches Public Service Campaign Geared to African American Women

Read the press release.

NMAC, premiered its new public service campaign (PSA), geared to African American women, during the 2008 United States Conference on AIDS, held September 18-21, in Fort Lauderdale, FL, at a luncheon plenary honoring 10^th Anniversary of the Minority AIDS Initiative (MAI), on Saturday, September 19.

Notes about the public service announcement:

• The PSA was made in partnership with Cable Positive, which mobilizes the talents, resources, access and influence of the cable and telecommunications industry to raise HIV/AIDS awareness; support HIV/AIDS education, prevention and care; and strive to end stigma by creating a more compassionate climate for people whose lives have been affected by HIV or AIDS. (Please note that Steve Villano, identified as the Executive Director of Cable Positive, has since left the organization.)

  
  

• NMAC focused its first PSA in over a decade on African American women. In it, three generations of African American women speak directly to their peers about the importance of discussing HIV/AIDS with each other and their families and learning their status. Black women who test positive are told that they can live a good live with AIDS with work and self-care. And those who are negative are told to "learn how to stay that way."

  
  

• The PSA features NMAC Board Member and singing legend, Nancy Wilson; CEO and Founder of Aspirations Wholistic Tutorial Services, Archbishop Joyce Turner-Keller; and HIV/AIDS Activist Ebony Gilreath.

  
  

• The tagline for the PSA is “Don't Let Another Sister Die Out of Fear: Talk about AIDS Today."

  
  

• Time Warner Studio donated staff, space and time to film the PSA at its studios in Culver City, California this past June.

  
  

• Collateral related to the PSA will be available from NMAC's exhibit booth at USCA.

  
  

• This is a taggable PSA, which means that other organizations may have their local cable/television companies insert their logo/contact information onto the end of it.
  
  

• Following USCA, the PSA was shown on cable outlets throughout the United States, and is available by request on BETA and DVD. It also available for download and viewing on this website, www.nmac.org, and youtube.com.
  
  

In September of 1994, NMAC launched a bilingual social marketing campaign called Live Long Sugar, featuring singing legend and honorary NMAC board chair, Patti LaBelle. Click here to view the PSA. The campaign, produced in Spanish and English, targeted communities of color and encouraged preventative therapy for AIDS related pneumonia.