Fashion with a message

Earlier this month I talked about the complacency among the post-80s generation about HIV/AIDS and the shocking increases in new HIV infections among young gay men, and the need to develop campaigns to resonate with this demographic.

The global fashion giant H&M last week launched a new partnership with Designers Against AIDS (DAA) to create a new collection – T-shirts, tank tops and hoodies – aimed at young people and designed to bring home the message that HIV/AIDS remains a very real issue and a very real disease.

As Ninette Murk, founder of DAA, says in the press release launching “Fashion Against AIDS”:

“Fifty per cent of the people newly infected with HIV are aged between 15 and 24. There’s an urgent need to do something in this target group. By combining fashion with music in this way we hope to get these young people to ‘stop and think’, as Katharine Hamnett puts it on one of the garments in the collection ." 

The campaign combining fashion with celebrity is to me an excellent example of the type of effort that is needed not just to reinforce the safe-sex message but to empower young people to ‘stop and think’ about the consequences of their actions and the harsh realities of HIV/AIDS that all too often nowadays is dismissed as something only affecting the developing world.

There is not a gay element as such to this campaign, but the participation of the likes of Jake Shears and Rufus Wainwright as designers brings high-profile openly gay endorsement to the project. More importantly although it may not officially be a “gay store” I would venture to guess that there are just as many young 16-24 y/o gay men, if not more, shopping at H&M than going to any gay venue every weekend making it an ideal brand vehicle to communicate this important message to this audience. I remember making many a dash to the Covent Garden store in London to find a last minute outfit for an unexpected night out and still shop there for their inexpensive ‘disposable’ fitted t-shirts and accessories.

I’m sure the range will be stylish and affordable making it appealing to the young demographic who make up H&M’s customers. I hope it also manages to be more than just a fashionable line that’s forgotten about next season and the campaign uses the opportunity to communicate a strong, relevant message on HIV/AIDS to this audience beyond the slogans on the garments. It is young gay men who are experiencing the some of the highest rates of new infections, and it is young gay men who make up a large proportion of the brand’s customers, so I hope it will make an impact in terms of changing the frightening complacency culture that we face right now. I also hope more young trendsetting brands and celebs will join this campaign and leverage the powerful influence they have on generation Y.

Share | December 27th, 2007 3 Comments »
Tags: Pop Culture