Skip to main content

Swipe Right on Safe Sex!

The first tool we created for our primary population was a dating app advertisement for our blog/website, where we would post information and resources about safe sex. The above video is just a draft, but in creating it, I thought a lot about what kinds of images would be relatable in context for people potentially with multiple sexual partners (or even those who don't, but still have the app downloaded). It was difficult to get the animation to a place where it was visually compelling, but the idea is that this advertisement would appear in the same format as someone's dating profile, and the message is to "swipe left" (reject) someone practicing unsafe sex, not using a condom, and that you should "swipe right" (attempt to "match" with) on those who do use condoms. "It's a match!" lights up the screen, resulting in a message that safe is sexy, and that you can visit our site to learn more about the campaign "Swipe Right on Safe Sex".

One thing I discovered in the process of creating this short animation is that many dating apps will allow you to buy advertising space for not a lot of money. There have been a few studies on the impact of Grindr advertising on attendance and HIV testing (Ubrihien, Stone, Byth, and Davies, 2020) and Grindr use in HIV prevention outreach (Hoenigl, Little, Grelotti, Skaathun, Wagner, Weibel, Stockman, and Smith, 2020), so I thought it might be a good idea to try to reach the same populations with safe sex messaging, something that isn't too scary or mood-killing, and something that can still stay positive and encourage their use of the app.


When researching advertising prospects on Grindr, it came to my attention that the swipe format isn't the same as on Tinder or Bumble. Instead, the app displays a grid of "who's nearby". The advertisement arm of the company, though, offers banner ads, full-screen ads, and pop-up message ads. They also don't have a minimum budget, so we could allocate as much or as little as we'd like to advertise on their platform.


We would hope that one of our partners, Project STAY, could help us apply for an Unrestricted Operating Support Grant. There are grants focusing on LGBTQ+ health and human services ranging from $250 to $2,500 that we would be eligible for. By forming these strategic partnerships while coming up with our messaging campaign, we are activating new media communication as well as community dialogue.


[Posted by Maya Osman-Krinsky]



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Let's Talk About Sex

We have now gotten to the action (tactical) plan phase of this project. The action plan is when you get to take all your research, planning and objective and come up with an actionable, feasible and strategic plan for all of the communication messages, materials, activities, channels and so on that you would like to use on the key audiences for your communications program. For our communications program HPVAX we are looking to build awareness and increase the number of men who have sex with men (MSM) in Harlem to get the HPV vaccines and have protected sex to diminish the spread of HPV and oral cancers. One of the key secondary groups we want to target with our program are sexual partners. Sexual partners are such an important group to target for this program as they have such an influence on the primary group- 18–26-year-old MSM in Harlem. Research shows that MSM perceptions of condom use are primarily shaped by social norms and their interactions with sexual partners. If sexual partn...
Post a Comment
Read more

Let’s Talk About Sex: Part 2

  When our group had initially discussed our idea for the communications campaign, we wanted to target heterosexual men 18-26 in Harlem to get the HPV vaccine. After doing some research, we saw that there was a high need for specifically the men who have sex with men (MSM) group and so we narrowed our population down. Reflecting back, I am interested how our campaign would’ve differed had our target group been more broadly men 18-26 in Harlem. What would’ve been the key differences in our objectives, strategies and tactics? The research shows that the MSM population is more likely than heterosexual males to not use protection during sex and in turn have a higher STI rate. Interestingly, they are more likely to be trust healthcare professionals and be open to getting the HPV vaccine. Thus, for our campaign we focused heavily on behavioral changes around utilizing safe sex practices and on increasing knowledge and awareness around the risks of HPV and the vaccine.   Given the ...
Post a Comment
Read more

About the What and the How: Communication Concepts

Communication is one of the essential components of our human existence: we use it every day.  Verbal or nonverbal, in written or spoken words, in our gestures, our actions, in the way we express ourselves or don’t. It seems like we’re communication naturals. But are we really? Our journey through the health communication world has made me think about how messages work and how we relate to them. Have you also noticed that sometimes, different strategies are needed to convince differen t people of the same thing? That, while you might be more likely to consider adopting a healthy habit if you’re reading about its benefits, others will be more easily convinced to change their behavior if they're made aware of the risk of not doing so? People are different in the way they react to how messages are presented. One of my main takeaways of this course is related to this phenomenon. The seemingly intuitive act of using different appeals to communicate one particular issue actually has a na...
Read more