KNOW HIV/AIDS Encourages Americans to Get Tested For HIV

KNOW HIV/AIDS Encourages Americans to Get Tested For HIV

Viacom and Kaiser's Initiative Features New PSAs, Special Programming and Community Outreach

NEW YORK, June 6 /PRNewswire/ -- Viacom Inc. and the Kaiser Family Foundation announced today, as part of their Emmy and Peabody Award-winning public education campaign, KNOW HIV/AIDS, a new series of public service announcements (PSAs) and other programming to encourage young people and those at higher-risk for HIV to get tested. The latest wave of the campaign comes in the lead-up to National HIV Testing Day (June 27). Since launching KNOW HIV/AIDS in January 2003, Viacom has committed $600 million in media value as part of its partnership with Kaiser.

Viacom and Kaiser teamed up with Crispin Porter + Bogusky, the Miami-based ad agency, to create the new PSAs launched today. The spots will air across Viacom's television, radio and outdoor properties across the nation. Now in its third year, KNOW HIV/AIDS has created a total of 111 PSAs to promote HIV awareness, testing and prevention messages to millions of people across the United States. In addition, the campaign has taken many of these messages to millions of people in Europe, Africa and the Caribbean.

"Knowing your HIV status is an essential part of prevention and treatment," said Matt James, Senior Vice President, Kaiser Family Foundation. "Testing provides an opportunity to receive counseling about risks, and early knowledge of HIV status helps link people to care."

Building upon the campaign's momentum and brand recognition, KNOW HIV/AIDS branded its new round of PSAs with the theme "The Know Is Spreading." The series uses upbeat and hopeful images of young adults to encourage HIV testing. Each of the campaign's television spots depicts a young couple meeting in an urban setting, who expand into a larger and larger number of people ... filling the streets of the city with scores of youth ... and, finally, moving together as a human symbol of how knowledge can spread faster than any disease. The outdoor spots reinforce the messages, and the radio spots feature Grammy Award-winning hip-hop artist Common, who continues his involvement with the campaign by performing spoken word pieces that echo these themes. All of the PSAs are tagged with the KNOW website, http://www.knowhivaids.org/ , and the hotline 1-866-344-KNOW (Spanish language executions) for those seeking information about the testing process and local resources. Another wave of messages will follow in the fall of 2005.

CBS and UPN affiliate stations will broadcast programming news and support community events to highlight local efforts that are promoting Testing Day, and UPN will rebroadcast the HIV/AIDS-themed episode of Eve. MTV will air a new MTV News report on HIV testing, launch new PSAs and announce a new partnership for a HIV-related film contest, all as a part of the network's new think MTV initiative. BET will present BET Open Mic: My Thing, an hour-long special on HIV testing, and launch new testing-focused PSAs under its Rap-It- Up campaign. VH1 will show AIDS: A Pop Culture History, as well as run two new PSAs. Showtime will air two testing-related films, Damaged Goods and Shook, as well as special introductions before three HIV-related episodes of hit series Queer As Folk.

In addition, Common and other music artists will participate in a radio show, hosted by VH1 on-air personality Aamer Haleem, to commemorate Testing Day and speak about the importance of getting tested. The show will air on Infinity Broadcasting radio stations the weekend before Testing Day.

Also, Common's latest album, Be, released on May 24 by Getting Out Our Dreams/Geffen Records, includes KNOW HIV/AIDS public education material and debuted at #2 on the Billboard Top 200 Albums Chart, selling more than 185,000 copies.

"As a media company, we are in a unique and ideal position to spread this knowledge of protection and prevention by leveraging our assets across platforms," said Carl Folta, Executive Vice President of Viacom." In collaboration with our partners, we want to highlight and support National HIV Testing Day by continuing to inform, engage and initiate a dialogue on HIV/AIDS, and foster a sense of possibility for the future."

The new PSAs (four television, four radio and three outdoor) are running across Viacom's broadcast networks CBS and UPN; cable networks MTV, Nick at Nite, VH1, BET, TV Land, Comedy Central, CMT: Country Music Television, Spike TV and Showtime; and 180 Infinity radio stations, a majority of which are located in the top 50 markets. Both English and Spanish ads are displayed on billboard, bus and bus shelter advertising faces in the nation's largest markets.

"PSAs tend to be frightening. But you can't scare people into getting tested," said Dave Schiff, Associate Creative Director of Crispin Porter + Bogusky. "No one will get tested unless they understand there is hope. So we took something scary-the way a virus spreads-and made it into something beautiful."

National HIV Testing Day was launched in 1995 by the National Association of People with AIDS (NAPWA-US) to encourage Americans to get tested, and increase overall awareness of the epidemic. To help enhance public awareness about the importance of HIV testing, the KNOW HIV/AIDS campaign has coordinated activities with NAPWA-US.

About KNOW HIV/AIDS

KNOW HIV/AIDS combines the power of Viacom's media brands and unmatched audience relationships with the public health expertise of the Kaiser Family Foundation to foster awareness of the disease and its prevention. Every Viacom division is involved in the campaign, and 111 messages have aired to date, totaling $600 million in media value. Many of the PSAs are offered rights-free and cost-free to any television or radio network. Additionally, Viacom properties, including CBS, UPN, MTV, BET, VH1 and Showtime, have produced more than 46 television shows with HIV/AIDS themes seen by millions worldwide. The campaign targets areas of the world where Viacom has a concentration of assets, especially the United States and Europe, and it partners with other companies to focus on regions most affected by the disease. Outside of the United States, KNOW HIV/AIDS is branded Staying Alive, building on MTV International's award-winning campaign of the same name, and encompasses the full range of Viacom's international properties.

Through a joint effort of KNOW HIV/AIDS and the BBC World Service Trust, messages in seven languages are broadcast to 60 million people in Africa and the Caribbean. In Russia, the campaign has teamed up with Gazprom-Media, Russia's largest private media holding, to help implement a cross-platform initiative on HIV/AIDS. KNOW HIV/AIDS is working in China with MTV and CCTV for a branded AIDS awareness campaign in the world's largest country.

About Viacom Inc.

Viacom is a leading global media company, with preeminent positions in broadcast and cable television, radio, outdoor advertising, and online. With programming that appeals to audiences in every demographic category across virtually all media, the company is a leader in the creation, promotion, and distribution of entertainment, news, sports, music, and comedy. Viacom's well-known brands include CBS, MTV, Nickelodeon, Nick at Nite, VH1, BET, Paramount Pictures, Infinity Broadcasting, Viacom Outdoor, UPN, TV Land, Comedy Central, CMT: Country Music Television, King World, Spike TV, Showtime, Paramount Parks, and Simon & Schuster. More information about Viacom and its businesses is available at http://www.viacom.com/.

About The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation

The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation is a non-profit, private operating foundation dedicated to providing information and analysis on health issues to policymakers, the media, and the general public. It is not associated with Kaiser Permanente or Kaiser Industries. Information on HIV/AIDS is available at http://www.kff.org/, and a daily news summary report on developments in HIV/AIDS is available on http://www.kaisernetwork.org/, the Foundation's free health information service.

About Crispin Porter + Bogusky

Crispin Porter + Bogusky is perhaps best known as creators of the 'truth' anti-tobacco campaign as well as for their work with the BMW MINI line of automobiles and Burger King. Based in Miami, CP+B's other clients include Google, EarthLink, Gateway and Virgin Atlantic Airways. In 2003, in an unprecedented sweep, CP+B became the world's most awarded agency by winning the Grand Prix at Cannes, an O'Toole award for overall creative excellence from the American Association of Advertising Agencies, as well as the grand prizes at the CLIOS, EFFIES, Kelly's, OBIES, APG awards and the One Show. The agency and its work has been profiled in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Forbes, Fast Company, Time, Newsweek, Advertising Age, Creativity and Archive. This year CP+B was named "Agency of the Year" by both Advertising Age and Creativity Magazine.

Source: Viacom Inc.

CONTACT: Crispin Porter + Bogusky: Katie Kempner, +1-305-646-7366, kkempner@cpbgroup.com; or Viacom: Kristi Gorman, +1-212-846-6261, kristi.gorman@viacom.com, or Imara Jones, +1-212-258-6363, imara.jones@viacom.com; or The Kaiser Family Foundation: Rob Graham, +1-650-854-9400 x237, robg@kff.org, or Tina Hoff, +1-650-854-9400 x210, thoff@kff.org

Web site: http://www.viacom.com/ http://www.knowhivaids.org/

------- Profile: Ent