Audience reception analysis of the national Brothers for Life Mass Media Campaign Audience reception analysis of the national Brothers for Life mass media campaign Study conducted by: The Centre for AIDS Development, Research and Evaluation (CADRE) www.cadre.org.za Written by: Laura Myers, Helen Hajiyiannis, Alice Clarfelt, Tshegofatso Bessenaar, Ts’elisehang Motuba, Rethabile Mashale, Nolwazi Mkhwanazi, and Kevin Kelly. Fieldwork team: Tshegofatso Bessenaar, Helen Hajiyiannis, Rethabile Mashale, Jacky Mendes, Nolwazi Mkhwanazi, Ts’elisehang Motuba, Laura Myers and Gcobani Qambela. Recommended citation: Myers, L., Hajiyiannis, H., Clarfelt, A., Bessenaar, T., Motuba T., Mashale, R., Mkhwanazi, N., & Kelly, K. (2012). Audience reception analysis of the national Brothers for Life mass media campaign. Johannesburg and Cape Town: CADRE. Electronic report: http://jhhesa.org/research.html Acknowledgements: This research was made possible through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)/Johns Hopkins University HIV Communicaiton programme in South Africa with the financial support of the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and with technical support and concept development from Johns Hopkins Health and Education in South Africa (JHHESA). The opinions expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the United States Agency for International Development. We gratefully acknowledge the contributions of all the focus group participants. We also acknowledge the contribution of the JHHESA advisory team of Richard Delate, Mandla Ndlovo and Lusanda Mahlasela for their oversight, guidance and review at all stages of the project. 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS Executive summary 1 Background 1 Audience reception study 1 Key findings 2 Introduction 6 Strategic Design of Brothers for Life Campaign 8 1.1. Campaign objectives 8 1.2. Campaign audiences 8 1.3. Campaign Themes 8 Male norms 9 Prevention of mother-to-child transmission 9 Gender-based violence 9 HIV Prevention and HCT 9 1.4. Campaign identity 10 The Brand Name – Brothers for Life 10 The Brand Logo 10 The Brand Slogan – Yenza Kahle, Do the right thing 10 1.5. Representations of male identity and key messages in the Brothers for Life Campaign 10 Manifesto: Using community ambassadors to promote positive male norms 10 Promoting male-to-male dialogue in addressing multiple partners and male involvement in PMTCT 11 Social influence: The role of sports and entertainment ambassadors in promoting HIV prevention, HCT and action against gender-based violence 11 Telling the personal stories of men and linking men to services: gender-based violence and medical male circumcision 12 TABLE OF CONTENTS 1.6. Communication strategy and reach 13 Mass media 15 Social mobilisation activities 17 Advocacy Activities 19 1.7. Key campaign achievements 20 Methodology – Audience reception analysis 22 1.8. Objectives of the study 22 1.9. Site and sample selection 22 1.10. Data collection methods 23 1.11. Data Analysis 24 1.12. Limitations 26 Audience reception findings 28 1.13. Overall impressions of the campaign identity 28 ‘Brothers for Life’ 30 ‘Yenza Kahle. Do the right thing’ 32 Logo 33 1.14. Levels of exposure 34 Recruitment form data 34 General feedback about audience consumption 34 1.15. Influence on male identity 37 Critical dialogue on normative masculinities 38 Identification, resonance and internalised meaning 40 Health-enhancing social identities 44 Becoming a ‘new’ kind of man 45 Taking responsibility 45 TABLE OF CONTENTS The virtues of self-control and caring for others 46 Shifts towards more gender equitable male identities 46 1.16. Audience decoding of key messages 47 Positive male norms 47 ‘There’s a new man in South Africa’ 51 Male involvement in PMTCT and parenting 52 Reduction of multiple and concurrent partnerships 58 1.17. Sports Ambassadors campaign 61 Alcohol consumption and related risks 62 Condom promotion 64 HCT promotion 66 Multiple and concurrent partnerships 71 Gender-based violence 72 1.18. Contexts for interpersonal communication 78 Peer groups 79 Family and intimate partner relationships 79 Educational communication 80 1.19. On the use of well-known celebrities 81 Conclusions 88 Recommendations 92 References 95 APPENDIX 1: Brothers for Life Awards, 2009 - 2012 97 Appendix 2: Brothers for Life – Channels, Themes and Audience Reach 99 Appendix 3: Levels of exposure from recruitment forms 109 Appendix 4: Brothers for Life partners 111 “Executive Summary ” Audience reception analysis of the national Brothers for Life mass media campaign Audience reception analysis of the national Brothers for Life mass media campaign Executive Summary Background Brothers for Life is a national campaign that promotes the health and wellbeing of South African men with a focus on HIV. Launched in South Africa in August 2009, the Brothers for Life campaign is the first social and behaviour change communication campaign to be introduced in the country that focuses on men aged thirty years and over; a hitherto largely overlooked target audience, .Although this is the primary target group that Brothers for Life intends to influence, the campaign also targets younger men, women and girls, health care workers, and sexual and reproductive health policy- and decision-makers in pursuing its objectives. Led by Johns Hopkins Health and Education in South Africa (JHHESA), Brothers for Life is a collaborative partnership with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the US President’s Agency for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), the National Department of Health, Sonke Gender Justice (SGJ), the South African National AIDS Council (SANAC), UNAIDS and over 100 partners. Funding for the campaign has largely been through USAID and PEPFAR, UNICEF and the Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA). Other key stakeholders and partners include: SABC Education, SABC 1, e.tv and other media broadcasters. The creative conceptualisation of the campaign was done by the South African advertising agency Joe Public. Media strategy development, implementation, monitoring and evaluation was provided by Mediology. The campaign had addressed the following key issues at the time when this audience reception study was conducted: promoting positive male norms and values; men’s limited involvement in fatherhood and the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV; HIV risks associated with having multiple and concurrent partnerships; low levels of HIV testing and disclosure; the relation between alcohol and sex, including condom use in contexts of alcohol use; counteracting gender-based violence; and the value of and access to medical male circumcision. The campaign has aimed to address these issues through creating a movement of men who stand for and represent positive social and health values associated with being a man. The campaign has been implemented through a multilevel approach using mass media, social mobilisation, advocacy, and partnership activation components; which have been shaped to work synergistically. Audience reception study The current document was written by a team of researchers from Centre for AIDS Development, Research and Evaluation (CADRE). It reflects the findings of a qualitative audience reception analysis of the mass media component of the Brothers for Life campaign. The report is based on 18 focus group discussions among the primary target population (men aged 30+) and secondary audiences (women, younger men, policy and decicision makers in all nine South African provinces during the period July to August 2011. Participants were chosen to represent three locality types: urban, rural and peri-urban areas. Sites were chosen to ensure maximum variation with the aim of capturing perspectives from Executive Summary 1 Audience reception analysis of the national Brothers for Life mass media campaign Executive Summary as broad a range of the target audience as possible, given appreciated for targeting men and was perceived as the limited scale of the study. Six of the communities departing from other health campaigns that often target were selected as research sites because Brothers for women. Throughout the discussion groups, female Life had particularly targeted those localities with a participants, reflected positive sentiments towards the more concentrated presence of outdoor media, posters campaign and the applicability of the intended messages and events. The other sites included had not been relating to HIV prevention and intimate partner violence particularly focused on, allowing some understanding of to them as well. the dose-effects of the campaign. Participants reported hearing about Brothers for Life Given this and the focus group methodology used, the either through mass media, from community-based study cannot be said to be nationally representative. organisations, at clinics or through hearing other people Rather the qualitative study aimed to analyse talking about the campaign. The materials which perspectives on the effectiveness of the campaign in participants were exposed to the campaign small media delivering its main messages and to understand the are brochures, posters. types of issues that shaped its reception; both from the point of view of the primary and secondary intended The discussants recalled and remembered without recipients. being aided and tended to reflect upon the television public service announcements (PSAs). The next most remembered communications were different print and out-of-home