THAT'S SO SEXY BLOG

Today is World AIDS Day

By Katherine Dodds, December 01, 2012

December 1 marks World AIDS day and I am reflecting on over a decade of work Hello Cool World has done around sexual and reproductive health. 

When we first formed the company in 2001, two of our first clients were Vancouver Coastal Health's Condomania, and what was known then as Planned Parenthood BC, now Options For Sexual Health.

But today I am reminded also, a lesser known campaign we did in that first year of business for Deltassist. Our intended audiences was young women in Delta, and so, we gathered a few together and brainstormed what kind of campaign would work for them. 

The result was this image at left, which was playful enough to catch their attention, but had it's serous side on the reverse: 

"Going Fishing?" asks the goldfish in the condom on the front. "Careful what you catch" is what is says on the back. Followed by "Does he call you cold fish for playing safe? Tell him to be a good sport. Put it on because you can't put it back."

This little card proved very popular, and our ad hoc focus testing revealed that young gay men also liked it! 

Without being too hard sell, it answered fears that some young women and gay men felt about being the one to insist on protection, and the humour was an effective way to make the message memorable.

We have a lot to thank that group of girls in Delta for, as it set the tone for all our work to follow, we take a documentary approach to advertising in as much as we ALWAYS go to the audiences we want to reach to get insights into what mode and message will have meaning for them. We do this to be effective, of course, but it also is an important part of our Hello Cool World philosophy, empowering communities is as important to us as completing our 'deliverables' to clients.

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Tags: Sexual Health, World AIDS Day

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Katherine Dodds AKA "Kat" is the founder of Good Company Communications and HelloCoolWorld.com. Trained in renegade advertising & branding through her work with Adbusters in the '90s, Kat's early induction into the possibilities of the web-world was inspired by the term hypertext, which she immediately found comforting. She is dedicated to cause-related communication and to the development and use of tools that promote democratic processes.

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THAT'S SO SEXY PSA - LAUNCHED JUST IN TIME FOR VALENTINE'S DAY 2011! 

We are on a mission to put SEX IN ADVERTISING WHERE IT BELONGS! Promoting safer sex in a way we think is going to be effective — by making it sexy! That's what was behind this Opt ad above. We have also remixed our That's So Sexy PSA and launched this site as a portal to all our sexual health initiatives, and to all our sexual health partners and clients. Our PSAs aired on CBC and Global in February & March.

Our mission is to re-frame risk management around this concept which we championed from the very beginning of our company, formed on Valentine's Day 2001, when we coined the phrase "pleasure management." This was the dawn of our decade-long affair with Options for Sexual Health, then known as Planned Parenthood Association of BC. We started working with Opt 10 years ago and have worked on all their major campaigns since including their name change and re-branding, and the latest effort now on all BC buses (pictured above).

Along the way, we've also teamed up with BC Cancer Agency and Chee Mamuk, worked with youth on Planetahead, and are about to launch a sexy new research project called Dating Confidential.

Join us to stay on top of all our sexy projects!