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2020 One Show - Social Media

The HIV+ Episodes

Agency Bensimon Byrne / Toronto + Narrative / Toronto + OneMethod / Toronto

Client Casey House
BACK TO RESULTS

Annual ID

OS_SM20_042M

About the Work

In spite of 40 years of education about HIV, the stigma around the disease remains as prevalent today as it ever has, mainly because of misunderstandings around transmission. This stigma keeps a large number of people with HIV from disclosing their status, leading to loneliness, isolation, and mental health issues. This stark reality is vastly underrepresented in popular culture: There has never been a mainstream television program that has tackled HIV stigma. To help people relate to the experience of living with HIV, and educate about transmission, we used beloved characters from Friends and The Office, two of the most streamed shows on earth. We searched 236 episodes of Friends and 203 episodes of The Office to find scenes that could be re-edited and reordered to create the unthinkable: New episodes where iconic TV characters are HIV+ and facing the isolation of stigma. We hired voice impersonators from across North America to replace dialogue, and lookalikes for each actor, so we could swap voices and faces using innovative post-production. To show these episodes were more than fiction, we had HIV+ influencers bravely share their untold stories of stigma, bringing a personal and human viewpoint to HIV stigma.