The Baby That Changed HIV
Award: Yellow Pencil
Yellow Pencil / PR / B2C / 2021
Award: Shortlist
Shortlist / Direct / Innovation
HIV has become treatable, but beliefs about the virus haven’t changed. To end decades of stigma, the New Zealand AIDs foundation had to prove HIV is safe in a way the world had never seen. So DDB Group New Zealand created Sperm Positive: The World’s First HIV-Positive Sperm Bank. The online sperm bank let men with HIV donate sperm, creating a global conversation about HIV. Now, Sperm Positive isn’t just changing beliefs, it’s changing lives. Four babies are due, 32 women have registered as recipients, 27 sperm donors have joined. And at 2:05pm on January 27th, 2021, the first baby was born – undeniably proving that HIV is safe. She’s a girl.
What did the judges have to say?
"Because it breaks the stigma about the virus."
Veritl Flores, CEO, Tanque Group