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ASAAP’s Media Campaigns
Jump to ‘Wrap It Right’ Commercials
ASAAP is a recognized agency amidst Toronto-based ASOs and community organizations for clever media campaigns. Over the past 5 years ASAAP has released four highly successful media campaigns: Discover with a Cover; I Have HIV; Change Your Attitude; and Wrap it Right.
Discover with a Cover
The Discover with a Cover campaign was a youth-focused poster campaigned designed to break silences and challenge myths about South Asian sexuality. These highly controversial posters featured a variety of South Asian men and women engaging in sexually provocative behavior. These posters were distributed and displayed in bars, bathhouses, events and schools. Many venues refused to display them due to their graphic nature. This campaign was ground breaking in its message and creative. A week-long discussion the Desi youth chat forum Sepiamutiny.com revolved around the posters and youth from across the globe argued and commented on their views of the campaign.
 
 
   
 
 
 
I Have HIV
 
The success of the Discover with a Cover campaign was instrumental in paving the way for future campaigns. Although engaging and provocative, the Discover with a Cover campaign was limited in its reach due to the heavily graphic content. This created a need for a new campaign that was less aggressive but just as effective. The I Have HIV campaign depicted South Asian professionals enjoying a meal and having a discussion. The text in the posters listed popular South Asian nuances such as “eating biriyani” and “reading Rohinton Mistrey” and ended with the question “Why can’t I tell you I have HIV?” This campaign was created to raise awareness about HIV stigma within the South Asian community. This colourful and thought-provoking campaign was widely displayed across the GTA including TTC subway advertisements.
 
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Change Your Attitude
 
The I Have HIV campaign addressed the HIV stigma in the South Asian community but there needed to be a complimentary piece to target the homophobia as well. The Change Your Attitude poster campaign was born. This campaign featured an openly gay South Asian couple on the streets of Toronto. The tagline for the campaign stated: “The only that needs to change here is your attitude.” This poster campaign was followed by two television commercials featuring gay South Asian men talking about coming out to their families and using condoms to protect them from HIV. This was ASAAP’s television commercial debut.
 
 
 
Wrap it Right
The Wrap it Right campaign is ASAAP’s most widely received campaign to date. This television commercial campaign featured eight different South Asian clips of people wrapping typical Desi things such as sarees, rotis, flower garlands and cricket bats. The idea for this campaign stemmed from the fact that there is a lot of stigma associated with engaging in open and honest dialogue about sexuality within many parts of the South Asian community. After showing the clips of people wrapping things, a gay couple was featured holding a condom asking the question: “we wrap it right, but the question is do you?” This advertisement was run on OMNI television, ATN, the TTC and on many other public and private venues. Print advertisements featuring still shots from the commercials have been poster-ized and distributed widely as well. This campaign is available to be viewed on youtube.com.
 
     
     
   
Youtube Videos
Wrap it right, 1   Wrap it right, 2
 
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