There’s a sign up over the main street announcing World AIDS Day. A great cause, I’m sure. Awareness is the best chance to combat it, but I’m not sure this is the best way. The sign says ‘World AIDS/HIV Day – Keep the Promise – Accountability’. I don’t even know what that means. How are the Bhutanese going to understand?
A friend is here working on behaviour change marketing, specifically the AIDS campaign. She is surprised that they didn’t use something from the campaign she’d been working on with them rather than the UN endorsed meaningless message, but what good would that do? They’d prefer to use the official slogan over something done locally. They wouldn’t understand that America and other strong UN countries may have a campaign built around those words already so that the meaning is clear on its own.
They’ve also put a double page ad in the local newspapers. Another good idea, but the ad is two pages full of text. Some high official has his name at the bottom, so it doesn’t matter that no one would ever read the message. He’s got his name in the paper. Of course, I doubt that’s related to Bhutanese culture, but it’s interesting to note that this remote Himalayan Kingdom has similar issues as the west. Copied? Or just human nature?