“The Turning Point”
An HIV/AIDS Latino Public Service Awareness Campaign

The Hispanic AIDS Awareness Program, with the collaboration of the Miami-Dade County Health Department, the sponsorship of the Florida Department of Health, Bureau of HIV/AIDS, and the creative production of Miguel Ferro, developed an HIV/AIDS Latino public service campaign entitled 25 MYTHS 25 REALITIES, which premiered in October 2006 featuring 27 Hispanic celebrities. We invite you to visit www.HispanicAIDS.org and review the entire campaign.

Summary of the 25/25 Campaign: Originally conceived and produced for television it has been aired over 8,500 times (at no cost) in the State of Florida. Due to the general interest generated it can also be found in the Internet in formal web pages such as ours and www.wemakethechange.com as well as, in informal pages found in YouTube, Facebook, MySpace, etc. It has also been utilized in traditional media venues such as: radio PSAs, ads in magazines, newspapers; billboards, bus shelters, posters, palm cards, water bottle labels and a roulette game utilized during health fairs and major festival such as “Calle 8 Festival” in Miami. In addition, to its original mission and a very important component, the Campaign has turned out to be a very effective training tool targeting different audiences. Just as important are the requests from the Center for Disease Control (CDC), other departments of health, Latin America and the Caribbean.

We are pleased to announce that this year; MIGUEL FERRO, the Miami-Dade County Health Department and the Miami-Dade College have joined our Program in a new effort, the development and production of the 2nd. Phase “The Turning Point” featuring PAULINA RUBIO as the campaign’s celebrity and spokesperson.

The Campaign’s focus is to raise awareness about the consequences, given a moment of high risk, of not taking preventive measures. For this purpose, 5 short dramatizations have been created focusing on high risk moments, faced by heterosexual, men who have sex with men (MSM), young adults and seniors that could carry life altering consequences. Therefore, the title of the campaign; those are the seconds when you gamble “EVERYTHING” (your life/your health) by making the wrong decision and it is precisely in that instant, when PAULINA’S message will be delivered. PAULINA will deliver an underlying message ‘MAKE THE RIGHT DECISION’, address the error of the action within the mini drama, and will serve as the “Jiminy Cricket” in an effort to stop us from hurting ourselves. We must highlight that all the characters portrayed in the PSAs, ‘save themselves’ by making the right decision. There lies the effectiveness of this campaign; if you make the right decision, at the ‘Turning Point’, there will be a “HAPPY ENDING”.

Building partnerships between media organizations, the private sector, personalities and community leaders is vital to achieving our goal. The need to join forces in the fight against HIV/AIDS cannot be overstated.