stompAIDS | WHAT'S ON | STUDENT EVENT LIST

The team chose to base our campaign on a 3-pronged approach – awareness, prevention and protection.

Our campaign will feature an Anti-Aids exhibition at the NUS Central Library “Arts Buzz” corner over a 3 weeks period and also a 2-day bazaar along the walkway outside the Central Library of the National University of Singapore, featuring exciting products such as interestingly packaged condoms, novelties, t-shirts with safe sex themes, Korean fashion and accessories and lots more!

“SeXtreme” refers to the act of sexual behavior being extreme, therefore dangerous and risky. Therefore, the message on the need to “play safe” to have a peace of mind, is conveyed in the second half of our tagline.

The tagline ultimately aims to convey the message that sex is no joking matter, thus the need for adequate information, exercise of abstinence or if sexual behavior is already being undertaken, safety measures while engaging sex, will ultimately make one “feel good” and safe because of the knowledge of protection from STDs.

Thoughts and reflections

It has been an incredible experience working on this project as well as challenging as we handled and dealt with the crises that came up during the whole campaign preparation and execution. We learnt many things from human relations to skills and sharpness to attend to the problems, these are things that are really beyond the textbooks and lessons in school.

However, it taught us not only the skills that would aid us in our future careers but also left with us something intangible to bring home with us. In our interaction with Action For Aids (AFA) as we raised some funds for them, it really revealed to us what the real situation in Singapore is and what has and could be done for the Aids patients. On top of that, we now also have a more global perspective of the situation as a whole.

This year, the World Aids Day on 1 December holds special meaning for us as we feel that we are a part of this global body, working together to cope with one of the most deadly diseases in the world that has no cure. Thereafter, we would no longer be passive in the affairs around the world but to participate and do our part for the less fortunate in the world in ways that we would be able to and could help.

Last but not the least, it is the friendships that has been forged and strengthened as we worked together on this endeavour. An experience that had opened up a new chapter in all of our lives and one that hold special significance to the rest of our lives.

Idea and Execution

Our idea is to have a one day event called NTU AIDS Day. As a buildup to the event we will have pre-publicity on a massive scale which will focus on interactive and guerilla marketing. This will be first – ever NTU AIDS DAY and will be a day to remember. The event day itself will have lots of fun-filled activities like ‘LIFELINE’ on the floor, quizzer’s treasure hunt, ribbonman etc. which will involve audience participation.

Thoughts and reflections

The stomp Aids experience has been ‘exquisite’ in every sense of the word. Weeks of hard work, sleepless nights, sweat, toiling, laboring to mobilise resources, negotiating with people, brain-storming sessions - in retrospect, it all seems to have been worth it. Participation in this competition has given us a great sense of satisfaction and enrichment. The test of creativity while conceptualizing the campaign for “stomping” aids, resourcefulness while making optimum use of the grant given, tactfulness while approaching sponsors and effectiveness during actual execution on the event day, the competition has demanded a wide array of skills of an individual and a team. We’ve been there, done it all and genuinely want to thank the HPB for having chosen us as their ambassadors in the war against AIDS. To conclude, we bear on our sleeves, a talisman of pride on having worked for a noble cause, through such a unique platform.

Idea and Execution

Decorations put up will transform the area into a bedroom. To make the theme stronger, we intend to have furniture such as bed, dressing table and wardrobe. Some of the furniture like the lamps will be decorated with colourful condoms, probably in different sizes too. Furthermore, interesting and refreshing messages related to both the individual sections and our campaign will be on the signboards to grab people’s attention.

Thoughts and reflections

“The Bedroom Affair” has come to an end and bandAIDS has enjoyed the process a lot, from planning the proposal to setting up the event itself. Talking to our peers and asking around, it is encouraging to find our event being talked about among them, and even on some blogs belonging to NUS students. Having an after-action-review has highlighted some room for improvements. There should always be some form of testing the effectiveness of the campaign through simple quizzes or questionnaires. It was, all in all, a wonderful experience.

Idea and Execution

On the 31st of October, an art-driven AIDS awareness campaign will launch in NTU’s new School of Art, Design & Media. Entitled “The Face of AIDS”, the campaign aggressively pushes for the demystification and discussion of AIDS and STI’s issues, believing that an intimate understanding is fundamental to inspiring affirmative action. A key objective is to spark discourse about sexually transmitted infections (STI) and AIDS.

The tagline, also the title of the exhibition running throughout the course of the awareness drive, expresses the belief that this campaign is founded upon – that an intimate understanding is the key to inspiring affirmative action.

Thoughts and reflections

Idea and Execution

As a team, we seek to use a light-hearted and humorous tone for our campaign. We felt that shock tactics have been overused, hence ineffective. Injecting humour would be more of a help in the retention of our messages.

Our team is adopting a differentiated approach with respect to the genders. Our rationale behind is the fact thatmale and female generally think and perceive differently. We saw the need to target both genders differently to further increase the effectiveness of the campaign, in lieu of a “one-size-fits-all” approach.

The word “precaution” was used as it could be interpreted in two ways; its primary meaning would be to remind viewers to use a condom when engaging in sex. A secondary innuendo could be taken as a warning against partaking in casual sex.

“Passion” was the word selected not only for its connotation with sex but also because it elicits feelings of impulsiveness and pure emotion.

Thoughts and reflections

Idea and Execution

Our main concept would be to get our target audience to “Be in the know”; as such we would like to generate curiosity by placing our teaser ads “Do you know?” and “Be in the know” all over campus. On the ads we will prompt them to visit our groups on face book to find out more.

After which we will release our 3 main posters which is to “know” – Abstinences, loyalty and protection. The 3 different posters will be put up sequentially within a period of 1 ½ weeks. Every time we put up a new poster we will update our facebook and friendster or the relevant information regarding the need to know about the ABC of HIV prevention.

We will be setting up a stage for the bands to play, mixing drinks and coming up with a drinks menu and making from scratch an interactive games area for people to play twister and learn about HIV the fun and safe way.

We initially had a problem with coming up with the tagline as it was either too long or too short. In the end we settled with “Be in the Know” as most youths do not like to be left in the dark on what is going on.

Thoughts and reflections

Overall we felt that the crowd responded well to the band’s performances and the video clips that we put together. Our peer’s responses were encouraging with many saying that they enjoyed the performances and were pleasantly shocked by the protest! Quite a few also mentioned how they liked our “know’ badge, not only as a great souvenir but also as a good takeaway for the main theme of our event. It was the first time for us planning and executing an event like this and in less then a month’s time! We have definitely learned a lot about what not to do next time and having better time management.

Idea and Execution

Keeping in mind that our target audiences are young adults, we noted that movies would be something all of them can relate to. Therefore, we intend to create an entire movie concept that brings forth our Aids Awareness message in an intriguing and entertaining manner.

Thoughts and reflections

It was definitely gratifying to see our event actually happening, albeit with a few hiccups. The overwhelming response from the school, especially on the first day had taken us aback, but we embraced it. We had many friends, family and SIM staff volunteers who helped out at our event as 'booth menders', including a lecturer who skated with the skate team and distributed flyers! We were grateful for the support from our peers who sacrificed their time to help out with our event. It was also very heartening to see the event turned out to be like an SIM effort as not only the SIM staff and lecturers were involved, even the SIM Guitar Club and SIM Singing Club, as well as the "Megabites" cafeteria contributed in their own ways.

Invited (charity) vendors gave us much positive feedback and donations from both the vendors, students and the school generated from the 2-day event was really encouraging for us.

The record-setting Aids Ribbon was another major accomplishment that we were extremely proud of as it really hyped up our event. We received many words of encouragement while doing up the "Aids Ribbon", and SIM staff and peers also generously supported our event with their tissue contributions to aid us in our attempt to 'wipe out Aids'.

Some areas which might require more effort on our part is probably the clearance for the pre-publicity collaterals to be put up in school. Some miscommunication with the SIM security created a bit of trouble with the cleaners regarding our stickers. We should also have proof-read the collaterals more thoroughly so as to fine-tune certain elements and better bring out the essence of the copy. More tie-ups with the subject of Aids and what it entails within our collaterals and event can also be implemented.

Last but not least, we really enjoyed ourselves!

Idea and Execution

Our event will consist of a series of extensive pre-publicity that will cumulate in a major event held within our college as per the aims of StompAIDS. What we plan to hold is a major concert featuring good local bands the likes of ‘And They Whisper in Silence” and “Rough Diamond Inc.”, a plethora of bands that cover varying genres (Indie, Hiphop, etc.) in order to appeal to a wide variety of audiences within our university.

Where the blank is interchangeable with the three catchphrases “Abstain”, “Be Faithful”, and “Use Condoms”, in order to reflect the three levels of AIDs prevention methods we intend to advocate.

Thoughts and reflections

The StompAIDS experience was certainly one that would be etched in our minds. Not only were we rewarded with valuable information, we also learnt the ropes in organising an event. Looking back, the difficulties we faced (yes, many sleepless nights and rushing of deadlines) were all paid off with the success of our event. To sum up the whole experience, our group would say – it’s really not that hard!

Idea and Execution

Our event will be based on the ABC message:

A for Abstinence from casual sex.
As casual sex is one of the main causes of HIV diseases and AIDS, by not having casual sex, one is greatly reducing his/her risk of contacting AIDS.

B for Be faithful to one’s partner.
Once committed to a lifelong relationship, one should refrain from having multiple partners. As if two parties are faithful towards one another, they will be well protected from AIDS and other HIV diseases.

C for using Condoms during sexual intercourse.
Although, condoms do not provide hundred percents protection, however, it do gives maximum protection when use correctly and constantly.

It is a contemplating question that youth will ponder upon when questioned. Also, it will set them deep in thoughts if they had not practice ABC.

Thoughts and reflections

StompAIDS campaign was an enriching experience and eye opener for the five of us. We had never imagined ourselves taking charge of the whole process from the conception of ideas to the execution. It was a chance given for us to stretch ourselves to our maximum, at many times going beyond our limits. Meeting up daily at 9pm and finishing up as late as 10pm is tedious. At the same time, juggling with our school work while our hearts and soul were with the campaign was demanding. As the dates drew nearer, we were driven to our extreme, making sure that everything would go well. Throughout the campaign, we persevered to a point that we wanted to spread the message across to the best of our efforts. Five girls, four different courses, one mission – stompAIDS. We are successful because of the support given by many!

Idea and Execution

By using the ‘shock’ tactic, ‘teaser’ tactic and ‘larger-than-life’ tactic, we want to promote HPB’s AIDS prevention message to teenagers (primarily the males which makes up 90% of the school campus), in the form of the acronym ABC, “Abstinence, Be Faithful and use Condom” using our very own “hands-on” approach. While strongly encouraging the sexually inactive ones to abstain from sex (this makes up 60% of the student group we surveyed), we also want to target at the sexually active ones (making up 40% of the population we surveyed), by impressing upon them the risks of having multiple sexual partners and of having unprotected sex.

Thoughts and reflections

It was great to see our artwork turned into posters, a life-size condom mascot and game boards. Our message board also received overwhelming support from participants. We were encouraged by the response of our peers to the AIDS/STIs prevention messages relayed by our posters. Some student participants also commented that they liked our teddy bear souvenirs. All in all, around 60 students participated in the activities organised.

In retrospect, we could have invited students from other campus to join us in this event, so more people could get to know about this project. In addition, external parties could have been invited to give educational talks before the event.

We felt that having one more game station could have added to the excitement of the event and we should have selected a more experienced emcee to enliven the atmosphere. The design of condom mascot could be improved to make it more ‘breathable’. Lastly, participation would definitely have been increased if we could hold the event earlier as exams were just two weeks away.

Idea and Execution

We have developed a clubbing concept and would set up this club in the atrium of Nanyang Polytechnic; showcasing a wide variety of visual pleasing presentation means to deliver our messages. Participants can expect to receive free goodie bags, mock tails, while submerging themselves in a funky learning experience.