News Releases

The Global Fund launches first media campaign

02 September 2004

Paris, 2 September 2004 - The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis & Malaria unveils its first communications campaign today in Paris.

In the presence of :

  • Mr. Philippe Douste-Blazy, Minister of Health and Social Security
  • Mr. Xavier Darcos, Minister-Delegate for Cooperation
  • Dr. Hélène Rossert-Blavier, Vice-Chair of the Board of Directors of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis & Malaria and Director-General of AIDES France
  • Ms. Mireille Guigaz, Ambassador for the Fight Against AIDS, Foreign Ministry (France)
  • Professor Richard Feachem, Executive Director of The Global Fund to Fight AIDS,Tuberculosis & Malaria, who presented the Fund's goals and objectives
  • Professor Nestor Mamadounali, Minister of Health of the Central African Republic
  • Mr. Maurice Lévy, Chairman of the Publicis Group

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria was created in 2002 through an initiative of the G8 and the United Nations, not only to stop the spread of these pandemics in the poorest countries but to radically reverse the growth rate of the diseases. In two years, more than three billion dollars have already been committed to programs in 128 countries , enabling the saving of lives and the prevention of disease.

Six million people die each year from these diseases – 16,439 people per day – and this is why the Global Fund must mobilize sizeable resources to enable the eradication of these deadly epidemics.

These significant resources allow countries to scale up existing programs for prevention and treatment as well as to launch new programs previously not possible due to lack of financial resources.

These three pandemics are devastating populations in low-income countries with already poor health infrastructures. The diseases have further impact on health, social, economic and political structures. The weakening of entire families cripples economic and social stability as well as continually adding to the growing global insecurity.

The media campaign devised by Publicis, launched today in Paris for French audiences, takes the challenge facing the Global Fund into the public domain. In order to reach its ambitious goals and fight these diseases, the whole world must be mobilized and engaged. The objective of this media campaign is to raise public awareness of the Global Fund – as global financing mechanism, recipient of funds from governments, institutions and other partners, and as the source of funds for agencies on the ground – and to capture the work of the Global Fund and thus the commitment of donors.

The strategy chosen for the print campaign conveys the idea that in order to battle a global killer, it is necessary to use a global solution, the basic principle being: “Big problems require big solutions.”

The print campaign includes three separate images: “The Helicopter”, “The Ship” and “The Truck”. These symbols put the emphasis on the direct aid provided by the Global Fund. The objects chosen to symbolize prevention and treatment – a surreal, giant tube of anti-malaria medicine, a capsule and a syringe – inhabit differing environments (jungle, desert, ocean) as well as modes of transport.

The print media campaign begins on 2 September 2004. To date, over 40 magazines and newspapers have agreed to support the Global Fund campaign, including daily newspapers, news magazines, women's publications, television magazines and leisure publications.

The film campaign is built around the same concept, finishing with the closing line, “In a fight, size does matter”, and comprises a 30-second television version (low speed | high speed) and a 50-second version for use in cinemas.

The impact of the film springs from its deliberate use of violent imagery, its gritty view of Glasgow suburbs, its sub-titles, the absence of background music and the physicality of the final confrontation it depicts. The television campaign will begin on 7 September 2004, and the cinema spots will run from mid-September. This launch will be accompanied by a public relations campaign.

Professor Richard Feachem, Executive Director of the Global Fund, said of the campaign, “The Global Fund exists through both public and private funds. We have an obligation to make ourselves known, both what we do and what our goals are. This media campaign is a first step in raising our profile and gaining support for our global program.”

This media campaign was created with the help of the Publicis Group, who, through their president, Mr. Maurice Lévy, committed in May of 2003 to support the Global Fund by helping put an international communication strategy in place.

Maurice Lévy, President of the Publicis Group, said, “The Global Fund is engaged in one of the greatest challenges that humanity has ever faced. We are happy to bring our assistance to the fight in a spirit of solidarity with developing nations. Our creative choice is original: we wanted to ditch conventional ideas and grab the viewer's attention in order to show that big problems require big solutions, in a language accessible to the younger generation, in order to get them involved.”

After the launch in France, this media campaign will be rolled out simultaneously in Great Britain, Germany, Italy and Japan from November 2004.

The press conference to launch the campaign was followed by a private lunch in the presence of the French Minister of Health and Social Security, Philippe Douste-Blazy, and Xavier Darcos, the Minister-Delegate for Cooperation who invited a number of CEOs of French enterprises to meet Richard Feachem and Maurice Lévy.

The lunch meeting served to reinforce the relationship between the Global Fund and the corporate world, in the spirit of public-private partnership, to support effective local projects either already in place or about to be launched.