Archive for March, 2011

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MTV Staying Alive Win Web 2.0 Award

Posted by Staying Alive Editor on March 29th, 2011

MTV Staying Alive’s Ben Anderson on why he is feels the recent IVCA Web 2.0 award is so relevant to the MTV Staying Alive Campaign.

Those of you who follow our Twitter and Facebook page may already have heard the news… But for those of you that haven’t, we are extremely pleased to announce that on Friday evening Staying Alive were awarded a Gold IVCA Award in the Web 2.0 category for the MTV Staying Alive Blog.

Now an IVCA award is no small feat! To quote their official website:

“IVCA Awards are recognised as the premier marks of excellence for effective business and public sector communications in video, interactive projects, business television and digital media.”

And while we won the IVCA Clarion “Charity And Social Enterprise Website” award last year, we feel the Web 2.0 award is so much more significant to us:

“Web 2.0: An award for the most innovative creation of web-based communities, hosted services, web applications, social-networking sites, video-sharing sites, viral, viral seeding and blogs.”

IVCA award winners2

The first thing to be said is a big thank you to everyone who has been involved – everyone at MTV Staying Alive, the bloggers, and most importantly – YOU the audience because without the articles from the bloggers, the engagement from the audience and the hard work from everyone at MTV Staying Alive – we wouldn’t even exist.

As the Social Media and Community Engagement Coordinator here, a big part of my role at Staying Alive HQ has been to create and then maintain a two-way conversation with our audience across social media platforms.

I feel in the perfect position to see how much of an impact have on our audience.

Just take a look at our Facebook page for instance, young people from around the world communicating together via the wall every day on issues that are often seen as taboo – sex, condom use, cheating, gender empowerment… and look at our blog, which is written by 18-25 year olds from around the world – on issues relevant to them.

In fact our current “Talk About Sex” campaign is all about opening the conversation up around sex, something which we feel is absolutely vital to challenging the lack of communication, the stigma and the behaviour that often drives the spread of HIV.

To wrap things up, while we are humbled to receive this award – we really do feel that the Web 2.0 award represents the community and conversation that is at the core of everything we do here at MTV Staying Alive and thank you for everyone who communicates with us across our different platforms.

How have YOU have been involved with this campaign over the past year? Let us know below – whether you are a reader of the site, an active member of our debates on Facebook/Twitter, or one of our bloggers… we want to hear from you.

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Celebrity Condoms

Posted by Carina Kolodny on March 25th, 2011

In response to US singer Ke$ha releasing her own brand of condoms – guest blogger Carina Kolodny takes a look at other celebrity rubber endorsers 50 Cent, JLS and Gene Simmons and explores the impact they have on condom use.

In April of 2006, George Clooney boarded a charted plane and flew to the border of Darfur. His awareness-raising mission drew popular attention to an important topic that had, up until that point, been a minor afterthought in press coverage and the collective public conscience. He appeared on Oprah, headlined rallies, founded a non-profit, spoke to the UN and did the full press circuit. His trip and fervor for his cause catapulted the genocide in Darfur to front-page news.

Clooney’s motivation was authentic and his results palpable but critics lined up to weigh in on his actions. Had he made Darfur a trend? Did it now have a shorter shelf life in the public conscience? Would it rise and fall with its 15 minutes of fame? His large-scale efforts catapulted a new question into the limelight: what should and shouldn’t celebrities do when it comes to activism?

The question can also be applied to the newly popular trend of celebrity condom lines: Kiss, Ke$ha, 50 Cent and JLS have jumped on the branded rubber band wagon. Here’s a run-down of what they have to offer:

condoma

Ke$ha: In a team effort with Lifestyle Condoms, Ke$ha’s face will be imprinted on 10,000 condom wrappers and the condoms will be, predominately, distributed at her concerts. “If you come to a live show, it’s a sensory assault. You will leave covered in sweat, beer, glitter, and, just maybe, you’ll get a special edition Ke$ha condom.” Ke$ha said, “If it breaks, you have to name you daughter or son after me.” Not so sure how the $ sign is going to pan out on a birth certificate but I’m going with it.

KISS: Gene Simmons, the eclectic star of KISS has been rocking branded condoms since 1991 as an integral part of his promotional campaign. While he’s been at it for a while, his 2011 line undoubtedly takes the cake. Instead of his branding just being on the wrapper, his face and signature tongue are now on the condoms themselves. The tongue stretches down the length of the condom, appropriate for any hardcore fan wanting to get his/her game on. My one big problem is this: the KISS website lists the condoms as a collectible item and it doesn’t take a sex educator to know that rubbers aren’t very effective when left on the shelf.

50 Cent: Wanting to get creative with keeping safe sex sexy, 50 Cent tried to get in on the condom game. Unfortunately, the deal feel through and his line never came to be… My favorite part of this would be rubber wasn’t so much the condom itself but the charity they were intended to support. A percentage of all sales going to HIV awareness—now there’s a rubber I can get behind.

JLS: Durex and JLS have launched a full-fledged safe sex campaign: Just Love Safe. The campaign sells t-shirts, mugs, key chains and, of course, condoms. Each member of the band has his own branded box. A great gift for your favorite fan!

So is there anything detrimental about celeb activism or star-studded condoms? Hardly. Without Clooney, Darfur would have never been as widely covered as it is today. Trend or not, fifteen minutes of fame is better than relative obscurity. Same goes for safe sex. Celebrity condoms may be more about making money or PR than they are about doing good, but the fact remains that they open up a dialogue. If people are going to take hints from the famed and fortuned, they might as well be inspiration to fight for a cause or to keep it safe when you’re getting sexy.

Can you really get down on somebody for using their fame to spread a good message especially when train wreck celebs tend to dominate the lime light.

Do you agree or disagree about the benefits/detriments of celeb condoms/activism?

Also, tell us what YOUR line of condoms would be all about.

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World TB Day And HIV

Posted by Staying Alive Editor on March 24th, 2011

To mark World TB (Tuberculosis) Day we thought we would post a short blog about why TB is so significant when it comes to HIV.

While HIV and TB are two different diseases, HIV is closely linked with a strain of TB which is resistant to traditional TB drugs and because HIV damages a person’s immune cells

TB often advances at a faster rate in a person living with HIV than in somebody who is not.

As a result of this, TB is the number one cause of HIV related deaths globally, in fact every year 400,000 people living with HIV die of TB.

This is an emerging epidemic, but a preventable one – not only can you have a vaccination to become immunise yourself against TB, but when diagnosed early on it can be effectively treated.

To find out more about TB check out: http://www.who.int/tb/en/ and watch this video showing  a World TB Day message from @UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibe explaining why UNAIDS are committed to halving the number of HIV related TB deaths by 2015.

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Elizabeth Taylor A Leader In The HIV/AIDS Fight

Posted by Staying Alive Editor on March 23rd, 2011

Today the world lost a shero, Elizabeth Taylor, a true activist who had been dedicated to fighting HIV/AIDS since the death of her good friend Rock Hudson to AIDS in 1985.

When we talk about young leaders of the Prevention Revolution it is very easy to forget about those who have lead the way previously to changing attitudes and raising awareness around HIV/AIDS – Elizabeth Taylor should be recognised as one of the first people to stand up and fight HIV/AIDS head on.

She become the first International Chairman of The American Foundation for Aids Research (AMFAR) which to date has granted over $200 million to HIV/AIDS research, and even set up her own Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation in 1991 to raise awareness and money to respond to the multiple threats of HIV.  Elizabeth Taylor used her celebrity status as an accomplished actress to influence a generation and beyond to respond to the multiple issues of HIV/AIDS.

Check out the video below – a tribute to Elizabeth Taylor and all of the work she has done for HIV/AIDS research.  Her efforts will live on.  Elizabeth Taylor we honour you.

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May she rest in peace.

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Get Involved In: Life In My Shoes

Posted by Guest Blogger on March 22nd, 2011

Meet Emily, campaign manager for HIV Charity Body & Soul who recently sent us this post, asking us to promote an amazing opportunity for young people in the UK to star in a film around HIV/AIDS.

We are a charity that supports children, young people and families living with and closely affected by HIV in the UK.

Now close to fifteen years old, Body & Soul has a long history of providing all round support for young people and families affected by HIV which we do from our base in London, UK. The support we provide for our 3000+ members empowers them to overcome the devastation and isolation of an HIV+ diagnosis, to see themselves apart from their illness and realise a bright and positive future together, as a family.

While we work with all sorts of organisations to deliver our programmes, one of our longest running partnerships is with The Staying Alive Foundation. Currently, Staying Alive is supporting ‘The Day’, a short, animated film project produced by the teens we support. It aims to increasing understanding of HIV among young people through thought provoking and inspiring stories that reveal key dramatic moments in otherwise regular lives of young people affected by HIV. With the support of Staying Alive, our teen members aim to develop this project further and tie ‘The Day’ into our recently launched campaign entitled ‘Life In My Shoes’.

Life in my Shoes is our powerful youth led campaign which aims tackle the stigma that surrounds HIV. Supported by stars including from the cast of the Misfits and The Inbetweeners, the campaign will culminate in an educational pack that will go out across London schools in September 2011.

Central to this pack will be a dramatic film based on the real life stories of teenagers and young people who come to Body & Soul. They want to use their experiences of growing up with HIV, to share with other young people so that one step at a time, we can get young people in and out of school, talking and thinking about HIV – and in turn understanding it that much more.

Over the next year, not only will there be the Life In My Shoes film, but many more opportunities and events from Life In My Shoes team to ensure that this campaign has as big and wider impact as possible. Ultimately, we want a society where young people who are living with or affected by HIV can be accepted and understood and feel free to be open about who they are.

Check out the video below to see the the stars themselves talking about Life In My Shoes:

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If you’d like to get directly involved with the film, you have until March 24th to upload an audition.

Beyond that, I’d still love to hear from you so please drop me an email emily@bodyandsoulcharity.org or take a look at the campaign website to see it for yourself!

www.lifeinmyshoes.org www.bodyandsoulcharity.org

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Welcoming The Staying Alive Foundation

Posted by Staying Alive Editor on March 18th, 2011

You may not know it but we are more than just a campaign at MTV Staying Alive – we are a grant giving foundation too and we are excited to announce that we will now be sharing our social media platforms with The Staying Alive Foundation.

Meet The Staying Alive Foundation’s co-ordinator, Louise, as she talks about what The Foundation does and what we can expect to see online from Monday March 21st.

Hi, I’m Lou. I work for the Staying Alive Foundation and have done since 2009. It’s a great place to work because everything we do is built on our belief that young people are best placed to lead the HIV prevention effort.

lou

We give out small grants around the world every year – to youth-led organisations carrying out innovative HIV prevention projects in their communities. I get to work with some really inspirational people, and they have cool ideas on how to get the safe sex message out to their peers.

The idea for the Foundation came in 2004 during the filming of a documentary for the Staying Alive Campaign. Henry, one of the main contributors, was living with HIV and working night and day to produce prevention education materials. With no electricity, his productivity was slow. When he ran out of candles, he had to stop producing his leaflets.

Georgia Arnold was producing the documentary and, touched by Henry’s dedication, she decided something needed to be done so that people like Henry could continue their vital work. The Foundation was born and, under Georgia (the Foundation’s Executive Director), 272 grants have been given in 58 countries.

Part of my job involves the selection and management of these grants. I speak to our grantees frequently to see how their projects are developing. I also get to meet them at capacity-building trainings which we run around the world.

The other part of my job involves managing the Foundation’s online presence – I look after our main website www.stayingalivefoundation.org, as well as a private social networking site for grantees www.stayingaliveconnected.org.

I’m really excited to be building on this aspect of my job with Twitter and Facebook – we have some great stories to tell so look out for the updates.

To get more of a taste for what we do at the Foundation, you can watch the below video. It explains in a nutshell what we’re about and the amazing people we support.

http://www.vimeo.com/15839717

Looking forward to seeing you on Facebook and Twitter!

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Let’s Talk About Hypersex

Posted by Guest Blogger on March 17th, 2011

Following a debate we had on our Facebook fanpage about the role of sex in your society, we received this post from guest blogger Eva Baker about the “hyper-sexualisation” of young people – and whether it is such a bad thing.

So, The UK Home Office recently released a report on the sexualisation of young people in the UK. Yup, those suited and booted politicians and psychologists seem to have been getting all hot and bothered about young people’s sexual behaviour, expressing concerns that the ‘hyper-sexualisation’ of us young ’uns can lead to all manner of bad behaviours, and be damaging to society as a whole.

Online sex

But have we really become a sexualised society, and if so, what’s so bad about that?

Whatever your creed, culture or country, sexual curiosity is a natural and inevitable part of growing up. Sexuality is a broad spectrum that is affected by countless different factors; from religion and culture, to personal and emotional traits and behaviours, it’s impossible to impose a one-size-fits all model of how we, as young people, should or shouldn’t behave.

But how exactly do we create our own sexuality, and what influences it? Well, friends are important of course; the company you keep influence your thoughts, opinions and experiences. But in a wider sense, we’re all under the influence of the messages our society puts out: through politics, education, and most importantly, the media.

Overly – sexualised representations of women in the media is a topic that gets feminists, academics, and now politicians, extremely hot under the collar. From adoring females throwing themselves at men on the Lynx adverts, to the honeys shaking their thang in the bootylicious world of music videos, it’s true that we’re bombarded with images of super-sexy women everywhere we go: from billboards and bus stops, from pop tarts and lad’s mags. As any bling-toting, smooth-talking American hip hop artist would tell you, sex most definitely sells.

So what is the affect of all this airbrushed sexuality on our real, slightly less shiny, lives? The people up top are worried about the difference between the simplistic images of sexuality that are fed to us on TV, and the more complex reality of our own sexual experiences. But come on, surely we’re not stupid enough to believe that all it takes is a liberal squirt of Lynx Africa to make the ladies come a-runnin’? That you can’t get a date unless you look like Rhianna, with the gyrating skills to match? Although the media may put a certain amount of pressure on young people to become more sexualised, I like to think that we have enough perspective to realise that all that glitters on our screens is not gold.

So what’s the antidote to all the finely manicured images of sexual flawlessness that surround us? I guess it’s in realising that sexuality is essentially an individual thing. Sure, it’s something that can be manipulated and used to sell aftershave, records, and all kinds of crap. But the images of man-eaters and temptresses, alpha males and kings of bling really don’t even begin to scratch the surface of what sexuality really means for different people around the world, nor do they represent ‘real life’. I guess that’s kind of the point. Ultimately, I reckon we’d all be better off if we took the media’s obsession with sex with the proverbial pinch of salt, trusted in our own individual sexuality and experiences, respected those of others, and talked about sex openly. I guess right here is a pretty good place to start.

So what do you think of Eva’s first post? Do you think young people are becoming

“Hyper-sexualised”? And if so, do you feel this is necessarily a bad thing?

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Boys Will Be Boys??

Posted by Guest Blogger on March 15th, 2011

As part of our Let’s Talk About Sex theme – guest blogger Chira Tochia tackles the gap that she feels exists between men and women when it comes to what is acceptable sexual behaviour.

Christina Aguilera spoke the truth when she sang ‘The guy gets all the glory, the more he can score; while the girl can do the same and yet you call her a whore’ and while we’re learning from the UK’s latest talent Jessie J that we can ‘Do it like a Dude’ I wonder why females are still holding back from being open and honest about their sexual appetite?

Boys at Ba

Our ideals on sex can derive from many things; religion, family, friends, culture etc. However, one thing that seems to pre-determine how we should behave is our gender. As a female I was always taught from a young age to constantly strive for equality yet, when it comes to sex, men seem to have an automatic right to sleep around with no consequences, and when a girl acts in a similar manner she is looked down upon and snubbed by others? I just don’t get it!!

The world is aware that with each generation, the nature of sex becomes more relaxed. Yet there is still this unspoken rule that girls shouldn’t be allowed to parade around as the single lady. I’ve noticed that it has become small talk to ask someone if they’re dating and I’m sure all females will understand when I describe that look of pity from this new acquaintance when you mention you’re single.

Why isn it such a taboo for a girl to be an independent single woman?! Guys get to be the sexy bachelor whilst girls appear vulnerable and lonely. I have passed my year mark as a single lady and I can tell you this is not the case. I don’t sleep around with random guys or have one night stands but I have a healthy sex life as a singleton, but there are still those that would look at my lifestyle choice ad say it’s unacceptable for a young woman to be parading around like that, but no one has ever questioned those actions of my male friends, “Boys will be boys” is all they would say…

What do you think? In your experience, when it comes to sex – is there one rule for men and one rule for women?

Chira Tochia is a 21 year old student studying advertising and marketing communications at Bournemouth University, UK. She is in the middle of a gap year and is looking for work experience in her desired field. Chira would describe herself as a culture vulture always up for trying new things from throwing myself out of planes to trying creepy looking food.

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30 Years Of AIDS: Once Known As The Gay Plague

Posted by Guest Blogger on March 14th, 2011

To mark the upcoming 30 years of AIDS this June, we will be taking a look at the progress that has been made throughout this period. To start off – we go back to the 80’s as guest blogger Melanie Scagliarini explores how AIDS was once known as the “Gay Plague”.

“The lifestyle of some male homosexuals have triggered an epidemic of a rare form of cancer.” This was the opening line of US News channel NBC’s first ever report on AIDS. The year was 1982 and whilst many were dancing around in our RaRa skirts as Top of the Pops blasted out the latest Human League and Bananarama, a new illness initially nicknamed the ‘gay plague’ but now called AIDS had reared its ugly head and provided gay equality with another block in the road.

disco lights backdrop

In the same year France finally removed homosexuality from its official list of mental health issues it was one step forward and ten steps back as intense reporting in the media (including scare stories being portrayed as fact) evoked a fear of gay men. They were afraid that a gay man would infect the toilet seat or that they would catch it from a public swimming pool. Some spoke of divine retribution and regarded the victims of this new disease as being the ‘authors of their own misfortune’.

Explaining the hysteria behind the news reports, Genevieve Edwards, Director of Communication of the Terence Higgins Trust, said, “what is so different for HIV compared to other diseases is that it affects so many taboos – sex, death, illness – and this led to incendiary headlines.”

Let us not forget that initially – albeit briefly — scientists did consider it to be gay-related. But as each step on the road to discovery revealed another twist, the name of the virus swiftly changed from the ‘gay cancer’ or GRID (gay-related immune deficiency) to ACIDS (acquired community immunodeficiency syndrome), until, finally in 1983: AIDS.

Despite this short turnaround, it was difficult to shake this stigma off for quite some time.  In his stand up show, Delirious (released in 1983) Eddie Murphy spoke of how “one night they (women) could be in a club with their gay friends and give them a little kiss and go home with that AIDS on their lips”.  Closer to home the Chief Constable of the Greater Manchester police described those affected as “swirling about in a human cesspit of their own making”.

Thankfully, times a changed and, with a little help from government campaigns and the work of organisations, such as the Terence Higgins Trust, raising awareness we are far more clued-up now.  The Equality Act has helped both the homosexual community and those affected by HIV.  No longer can someone be legally refused access to care, schooling or be sacked from work for carrying the virus, as happened at the beginning.  No longer do we think that the HIV positive plumber will infect the cistern or the lesbian next door will pass on the disease when she holds open the door.

The rich and famous have had their part-to-play. Not just Elton John’s Aids awareness work, Scarlett Johannson’s recent public admission that she regularly tests for HIV or Princess Diana evoking a headline-grabbing frenzy after hugging an Aids sufferer in 1987, but those who ‘came out’ as having this disease.

Speaking about Queen singer Freddie Mercury’s death from Aids in 1991, Genevieve Edwards said, “People like Freddie Mercury helped.  He did a very brave thing coming out (as gay) and also revealing that he had Aids – it really helped. Many stories on HIV/Aids are full of figures and numbers. It needs to be personalised and people like Freddie Mercury help do this.”

Whilst there still is the odd remark out there overly associating the gay community with Aids, we have come forward in leaps and bounds. Of course there are some groups at higher risk than others, but people are generally more educated on this issue and the shackles of stigma imposed on the gay community in 1982 have loosened somewhat.  Certainly if Eddie Murphy tried to repeat the same ‘joke’ in 2011 there would be a huge public outcry.  Quite right, too.

What do you think of Melanie’s post? And what do you think has been the key defining moment of HIV/AIDS over the last 30 years?

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MTV Exit: The Bold Lipstick Competition

Posted by Staying Alive Editor on March 10th, 2011

Hey readers!

We just wanted to let you know about a competition that our friends at MTV Exit have been running over the last month called The Bold Lipstick Competition over at http://mtvexit.org/boldlipstick_home.html

They are now looking for YOU to vote for the winner – and get the chance to win some cool MTV goodies in the process.

bold1

MTV Exit is a global campaign that aims to raise awareness and prevent human trafficking globally – this is an important campaign to us, as we feel the issues that are often entwined into human trafficking – such as human rights, gender equality, gender violence and rape are all drivers of HIV and we feel to that tackling these issues are key to reducing the spread of HIV worldwide.

The Bold Lipstick Competition was launched on Valentine’s Day and aimed to get entrants to send a Valentine message, using red lipstick on behalf of the many people who are enslaved due to human trafficking and unable to send messages themselves.

The competition has now been shortlisted down to just six entries, and you have until March 18th 2011 to vote for your winner. You can even win some exclusive prizes from MTV and US artist Black Iris Collective in the process.

So get voting and let us know how you get on!

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