• by Les Luchter , June 15, 2026

Michelle Visage, known largely for her role as a permanent judge on “RuPaul’s Drag Race” and its sister shows, is the face of “PrEP Wise,” an awareness campaign from GSK’s ViiV Healthcare, the only pharma firm focused solely on HIV/AIDS treatment products.

PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis) treatments, despite being available to prevent HIV for over a decade, have had relatively low pickup. “The CDC says there are about 2 million Americans who could benefit from PrEP, but only about 25% of those are actually using it,” ViiV’s director of enterprise communications Robin Gaitens tells Marketing Daily.

That’s why companies tend to focus on PrEP awareness, even in specific product campaigns.

ViiV’s new awareness campaign takes a different approach: educating consumers that there are different kinds of PrEP treatments, while pointing out the option of long-lasting injections.

ViiV, no surprise, offers such a treatment that goes unmentioned in the campaign: Apretude, launched in early 2022 as the first long-lasting bimonthly injection  rather than a daily pill. Now, there are other injectables on the market, such as Gilead Sciences’ twice-yearly Yeztugo, which recently launched with a “One2PrEP” ad campaign from Digitas.

“Anytime you have more competitors entering the market, it helps raise awareness, which is a good thing,” Gaitens acknowledges. “We hope that people who can benefit from PrEP will start using it -- it’s the only way we’re going to be able to end the epidemic.”

ViiV’s paid media campaign starring Visage spans TV spots on streaming and cable, banner ads and social media, with specific outlets including  Bravo, Hulu, Logo, Paramount+ and Peacock. Jacques New York is the creative agency, with Publicis handling media buying.

ViiV plans to have five TV spots roll out over the next several months, Gaitins reveals, with two of them having already debuted since the campaign began in tandem with Pride Month on June 1.

While the main target audience remains the LGBTQ community, Gaitlins says that ViiV also wants to reach many different communities that are “disproportionately impacted by HIV. (Those groups include Black, Latino and “a growing female segment,” HiiV’s Bithiah Lafontant told Marketing Daily in 2024.)

One of the new campaign’s first two spots, which Visage has posted on social media, sets her in a nightclub amidst a diverse group of attendees. In the other spot, she’s poolside with three men who sort of look alike.

Both spots start with Visage saying, “Time to get some PrEP wisdom” and end with her saying “Know what to ask your doctor, get PrEP Wise.” This is followed by an onscreen URL, GetPrEPWisdom.com. In between, she talks about how choices may seem similar, but there are differences “like injectable PrEP options.”

The campaign is “not really pushing the injectable PrEP option,” Gaitlins says, “as much as raising awareness that there are differences among injectable PrEP options on the market, and important questions people should ask their doctors so they can …choose the option that works best for them.

They should ask their doctor questions like, ‘Where on the body is the medicine injected?,’ ‘What should I expect with each injection?, ‘Are there medicines or supplements I’m taking now or may take in the future that could interact?’”