A GREAT ACHIEVEMENT FOR THE SCRUTINIZE CAMPAIGN

When Levi’s® Red for Life, JHHESA, USAID and Matchboxology teamed up with celebrity comedian Joey Rasdien to create Scrutinize, a series of short animations or ani-merts (animated commercials), the aim was to win the ears of the young adult population, get them to listen up, take responsibility for their actions and help tackle the HIV/Aids pandemic. Now the show has won more than that, walking off with third place in the ‘Teen Category’ at the Khuza Awards 2009. It’s a remarkable achievement: this is the first time in the history of the Khuza awards that a social marketing campaign was voted into one of the top three places. All the more astounding as this research is designed to gauge the public’s affection for consumer marketing campaigns and brands. And it’s a very significant milestone because those voting were teens - which means these critical messages are reaching their hearts and minds. The Khuza Awards are South Africa's biggest research-based youth marketing communications awards, with over 3000 of South Africans critics, aged 8-22 year olds, making their mark for their favourite entrants in the TV, print, radio and outdoor categories. So this one’s from the mouths of babes – a true reflection of how the target market feel about Scrutinize. Cal Bruns, Chief Creative Incubationist at Matchboxology is ecstatic. “That Scrutinize was featured in the same breath as Coke, Pepsi and Volkswagon is utterly amazing, probably the first HIV prevention campaign in the world to ever crack a teen choice award!” he enthuses. “South Africa has seen so many HIV campaigns launched into the ether. This one obviously touched the right chord.” It’s a sentiment shared by Debbie Gebhardt, Marketing Director for Levi Strauss South Africa. “We’ve always believed that there should be no sacred cows with Scrutinize,” she explains. “It was a risk, but we have to face up to reality here, and there’s no way to water this message down. I think this award proves that our thinking was right, and that our message was heard loud and clear.” Cal draws attention to the fact that Scrutinize was a collective effort. “While awards and prevention campaigns may seem like odd bedfellows, yesterday's endorsement bears testament to just how unique and special this public/private partnership between Levi's®, JHHESA, USAID, PEPFAR and Matchboxology is,” he concludes. It’s a great achievement for a unique, powerful way of getting people to see the real facts behind the HIV/Aids pandemic.