Success Stories
Red for Life
New Start and Levi’s Team Up
Red for Life is a Levi’s campaign aimed at bringing HIV counseling and testing, and prevention messages to young South Africans in a convenient and compelling way. This unlikely partnership, combining New Start’s expertise with one of the world’s iconic brands, is a global first.
Although most new infections occur among 15-24 year olds, only 20 percent of this group has ever been tested. Levi’s, voted the third coolest brand in 2007 provided New Start with its most valuable asset -- its brand. Levi’s promoted New Start’s counseling and testing services through their stores, and by extensive media outreach.
The company that knows how to talk to the youth has developed the first consumer-oriented “incentivized” testing campaign in South Africa. Levi’s, using New Start’s expertise, produced and aired 26 celebrity TV infomercials on counseling and testing.
Clients who tested at New Start received trendy Red for Life rings to symbolize that they know their HIV status. Levi’s also staged its “Rage for the Revolution” HIV awareness music concert in Johannesburg, offering free tickets, at the New Start tents, to anyone who tested two weeks preceding the concert.
The Levi’s/New Start branded testing stations were a hit. The slogan, Work it out for Yourself became a household phrase as New Start took their tents to exclusive shopping malls, university campuses, and youth-friendly locales in the townships. There was a huge increase in client flow.
New Start Johannesburg saw more clients during the first two weeks of the campaign than ever before! More than half of the new clients were young adults, and during the Thirty Days of Testing campaign leading up to the concert, New Start saw a 200 percent increase over the normal testing flow.
Since 1993, New Start has led the pack in the development of HIV prevention strategies in South Africa. The organization is South Africa’s first HIV counseling and testing social marketing program. It is funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention through the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief.