The push to bring HIV awareness to young people, evidenced
by a recently launched ViiV campaign, isn’t confined to the U.S.
In
Brazil, for instance, Gen Z fans of "funk proibidão” – a musical subgenre known for raw, explicit lyrics regarding street life and sexuality -- are being treated to embedded
8-second looping animations promoting condom use when they access a number of Spotify tracks by popular artists.
For specific examples, see Mc Livinho’s "Fazer
Falta," Mc Davi’s "Vínculo Nenhum," Mc Mari’s "Flauta," and Mc Pikachu’s "Lá no Meu
Barraco.”
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The targeted vídeos come via Spotify’s Canvas tool, set up to
allow artists to replace album art with looping visuals during playback.
“When we noticed that funk artists with explicit sexual lyrics weren’t using Spotify Canvas, we immediately
saw an emerging media space,” Rogerio Chaves, co-chief creative officer of Omnicom’s Africa Creative said in a statement, allowing “the meeting of entertainment and education in the
same place.”
The agency’s client for this campaign is UNAIDS Brazil -- that country’s group working with the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AID, which aims to stop the
virus by 2030.
According to the Brazilian Ministry of Health, 48.7% of new infections in 2024 were recorded among people aged 15 to 29. And the Brazilian Statistical Institute’s National
School Health Survey found that condom use among 13- to 17-year-olds dropped from 72.5% in 2009 to 57.2% in 2024.
“By occupying the visual space of "funk proibidão" tracks, UNAIDS
Brazil inserts the message of protection into a context where sexuality is already discussed openly,” the company said in a press release, “bridging the gap between cultural expression and
the information necessary for informed choices.”
The idea, said UNAIDS Brazil, is to “adapt institutional messaging to modern digital consumption dynamics.”
The four
featured tracks “accumulate approximately 300 million views on the platform, ensuring massive reach among Brazilian adolescents,” the group said.