Casey House and creative network Tadiem are hoping to tap into the visceral response most viewers have to horror films with their latest campaign under the “Smash Stigma” platform.
Called Others, the new campaign centres on a 20-minute short film that aims to eliminate the stigma that HIV-positive individuals face by reflecting their lived experience through the perspective of one such person.
“After 40 years, there’s still a complete lack of understanding and education around how HIV is transmitted, and that leads to fear,” explains Joseph Bonnici, CCO with Tadiem, the network to which Narrative belongs. “Stigma comes from that fear – and it is because of that insight that we embraced the horror genre.”
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The short tells the story of an actor who faces stigma because he is HIV-positive through the narrative lens of a horror story. Peter McPherson, a U.K.-based actor who lives with HIV, was cast to portray the character, and in some ways the film reflects his own lived experience.
“When I read the script, I instantly felt an intimate connection to the character,” he explains. “I’ve experienced the fear that stigma creates.”
At every turn in the film, the protagonist faces stigma – except from his partner. This was a deliberate choice in order to put audiences in the place of the character and help them genuinely experience the fear that results from living in such an environment. Though the film itself “doesn’t mention HIV at all, until the end,” Bonnici adds, it does eventually pull back the curtain to explain why the character is treated the way that he is. That was a deliberate choice, because “it humanizes what Peter experiences in the film for as many people as possible.”
“Others will spark needed conversation on the impacts of stigma that people living with HIV face every day,” says Joanne Simons, CEO of Casey House. “Horror is a genre that allows for complex social issues to be presented in a compelling way. An evolution of the hospital’s ongoing #SmashStigma initiative, the Others campaign looks to harness the power of fear – which fuels stigma – to spark conversations around outdated misconceptions about HIV.”
The film is a work of fiction, but it reflects the stories of real people who are HIV-positive, and the stories of six of those people are featured at its end and in a series of short interviews featured on the campaign’s microsite.
In the past several years, the tandem of Tadiem and Casey House have produced campaigns that targeted the stigma faced by HIV-positive food service and spa workers, and filmed shorts in the style of some of the world’s most popular sitcoms, all geared towards the same end.
“Each year, we try to help people understand the experience of living with HIV,” Bonnici tells strategy. But this year, the film is particularly powerful because of the way it evokes that genuine fear of the stigma that many HIV-positive individuals face on a daily basis within the viewer. “When you go to see a horror film, you’re going to feel fear. There’s an open-mindedness that comes with the genre that really allows us to put anyone who watches this film squarely in the place of someone who is stigmatized.”
The premier of the film was held Oct. 26 at an abandoned amusement park reminiscent of the film’s backdrop. It now is available to stream online both via the aforementioned microsite and on YouTube.
