Kami is part of a trend that is transforming both public health and popular entertainment. From New York to New Delhi, health advocates are discovering that rock stars, cartoon characters and fictional detectives can change hearts and minds in a way that pamphlet-wielding experts never will. In rural India a popular BBC character named Detective Vijay has put a new face on HIV and AIDS by turning up positive in the course of a serial TV and radio drama. In Kenya a radio soap opera called “Ushikwapo Shikamana” (“If Helped, Help Yourself”) uses fictional storylines to address issues such as female circumcision, domestic violence and family planning. The trend has even reached Afghanistan, where a radio soap called “New Home, New Life” uses fictional refugee stories to convey information about everything from land mines to personal health and hygiene.
The reach of these programs can be staggering. MTV’s “Staying Alive” campaign–a hip series of AIDS-oriented celebrity talk shows, documentaries and concerts–reached 800 million households between July 2002 and March 2003. That’s roughly two thirds of the world’s television viewers. Do these campaigns really change people’s feelings and behavior? Follow-up studies suggest the impact is significant. In analyzing a more recent MTV campaign called “Fight for Your Rights: Protect Yourself,” the Kaiser Family Foundation found that half of all viewers ended up talking to their partners about safer sex and 24 percent sought out testing for HIV or other STDs. That’s some powerful medicine.
