New outdoor ad campaign highlights AIDS Healthcare Foundation’s free
LOVE condoms just in time for safer sex holiday and Valentine’s Day
LOS ANGELES –AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), the world’s largest HIV/AIDS healthcare organization which also provides free, comprehensive sexually transmitted infection (STI) testing and treatment, is rolling out a new national outdoor advertising campaign promoting its LOVE condom brand. The new campaign, which starts posting in Los Angeles this week and will be out across the country over the next week, is tied to International Condom Day (ICD), an internationally recognized holiday originated by AHF in 2009 and celebrated annually on February 13th – the day before Valentine’s Day. ICD is an innovative and lighthearted way to remind people that wearing a condom can prevent unwanted pregnancy and STIs, including HIV.
The ad features a crisp photographic image of two distinct hands forming the ever-popular heart hands sign carefully cradling a LOVE Condom. A beautiful blue sky and clouds set off the image, which is accompanied by the URL for www.AHF.org, which makes it easy to find AHF’s services, including free, nonjudgmental STI testing and treatment locations.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), “[t]here were more than 2.4 million STIs reported in the United States in 2023; however, there are promising signs the epidemic may be slowing:
- Gonorrhea dropped for a second year—declining 7% from 2022 and falling below pre-COVID-19 pandemic levels.
- Overall, syphilis increased by only 1% after years of double-digit increases.
- Primary and secondary syphilis declined for the first time in more than two decades, down 10% since 2022. These cases also dropped 13% among gay and bisexual men for the first time since CDC began reporting national trends among this group in the mid-2000s.
- Increases in congenital syphilis cases appear to be slowing in some areas—with a 3% increase over 2022 nationally, compared to 30% annual increases in prior years.
While these data are encouraging, reportable STIs remain unacceptably high and disparities persist.”
The LOVE condom outdoor advertisements will appear on billboards, bus interior cards, bus benches, posters, and transit shelters in 28 cities nationwide where AHF has clinics and Wellness Centers offering free STI testing and treatment, including Atlanta, GA; Baltimore, MD; Baton Rouge, and New Orleans, LA; Chicago, IL; Cleveland and Columbus, OH; Columbia, SC; Dallas-Ft. Worth and Houston, TX; Ft. Lauderdale, Ft. Myers, Miami, Orlando, Pensacola and St. Petersburg, FL; Falls Church, VA; Jackson, MS; Los Angeles, Oakland, San Diego and San Francisco, CA; New York, NY; Philadelphia, PA; Seattle, WA; and Washington, DC and Puerto Rico.
