New Campaign From Wing and Red Hot Promotes AIDS/STD Awareness

NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwired - Apr 9, 2013) - Have you ever met an attractive person at a bar and exchanged numbers? Imagine if once this person has left the room, you start receiving hundreds of text messages detailing their sexual history -- from various partners. Well, in a hidden camera stunt around several New York City bars, leading full-service marketing communications agency Wing (www.insidewing.com), created just that -- with powerful communication that explores the potential risks of unprotected sex. The campaign aims to increase awareness and educate Millennials about sexual diseases and the Red Hot Organization (www.redhot.org), a not-for-profit dedicated to fighting AIDS through popular culture. 

With the drop in the rate of HIV/AIDS infections over the last few years, awareness of the disease has fallen dramatically. To combat this, Red Hot and Wing partnered to create a viral video that speaks to the public about the risks of HIV/AIDS in a clear, engaging, and most importantly, modern way.

The video puts a clever spin on the singles scene and its preferred method of communication, text messaging, to demonstrate that choosing a new sex partner puts you in contact with all their previous partners. A young woman enters a bar, is approached by a number of men, and begins exchanging numbers. With a number of familiar dings -- the hallmark sound of an iPhone text message -- text messages begin to populate the screen, as if the men exchanged numbers with each other. The messages detail the various sex partners this woman has had, with a reminder text message, "Don't get more than their number -- protect yourself."

Additional stunts are planned for the near future. The video will play as pre-roll prior to highly targeted online videos as well as on the Red Hot website.

"We felt this was an important topic and message to convey, as this generation has not been effectively educated on the risks of unprotected sex," said Andrew Speyer, managing director at Wing. "Although the stunt was not solely focused on Hispanics, we understand STDs affect Hispanics and developed this concept to communicate this in a relevant and engaging way." 

Since Red Hot's inception in 1989, over 400 artists, producers and directors have contributed to over 16 compilation albums, related television programs and media events to raise donations totaling more than 10 million dollars for HIV/AIDS relief and awareness around the world. As John Carlin, Red Hot's CEO and longtime AIDS activist, told Rolling Stone Magazine, "we're a company that would like to be out of business."

To view the video, click here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwHEot0BrFY&feature=youtu.be

About Wing
Wing (formerly WingLatino) is a leading full-service marketing communications agency focused on the intersection of the U.S. Hispanic, Latin American and general markets, re-imagining what it means to be an agency in the Latino space. Wing's client roster includes some of the world's most recognizable brands, such as P&G's Pantene, Downy, Cover Girl and Olay, in addition to DIRECTV, Goya Foods, Eli Lilly, mike's hard lemonade, RadioShack, Reliant Energy, Beechnut, The Partnership at Drugfree.org and the Ad Council. An agency within WPP's Grey Group, Wing is headquartered in New York with offices in Miami. To learn more about how we think, visit www.insidewing.com.