Partners: Action for a Better Community, The Cause Collaborative
Men of color are not getting tested for HIV at the rates they need to be. Part of that is access. A bigger part is how the message has historically been framed — as individual risk, not collective responsibility. The campaign needed to change that framing.
Working with Action for a Better Community and The Cause Collaborative, we built a campaign around a shift in perspective: this isn't just about you knowing your status. It's about what you owe the people around you.
That reframe is where the work started. Know Your Status and Protect the Village aren't slogans layered onto a health campaign. They're the argument. Every channel decision, every placement choice, every piece of swag was in service of that idea landing in the right places with the right weight.
We used peer brand ambassadors who were already part of the communities we were trying to reach. Not spokespeople. Neighbors. That distinction matters when trust is the variable you're trying to move.
Distribution spanned digital (organic and paid social, landing page) and print (posters, banners, signage), plus physical touchpoints people actually keep: stickers, pop sockets, condom boxes, t-shirts. Strategic placement meant the message showed up where these communities already were, not where we hoped they'd go looking for it.
The visual language came from a specific idea: household blinds. Stop hiding. Do your part.
Dark palette, direct photography, lion illustrations. The visual choices communicate power and agency, not vulnerability or shame. That's intentional. Campaigns that lead with fear rarely move people to act.
The campaign mark pulls in the Adinkra symbol Owuo Atwedee, the symbol for mortality, grounding the work in cultural weight that's already meaningful to the communities it's speaking to. The mark uses ABC's brand colors and a modified version of their brand font, keeping the campaign tethered to the institutional partner while standing on its own.
Strategy, Creative Direction, Design
Collaborators: The Cause Collaborative team: Founder: Becca Delaney, Strategist: Lauren Morgan, Writer: Alexis Russel, Action for a Better Community Board Members
*currently in Lakeville, NY
I’m working on a balance between the things that make me happy: family, giving back, and creative strategy. Like most people I only have 24 hours a day, that doesn’t leave time for everything, sorry Facebook.
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