They’re not preachy and they don’t lecture about HIV. Instead, the Fataki radio campaign ads use humor and subtlety to address the dangers of cross generational sex and HIV transmission and to empower family and friends of young women to avoid these relations.

Fataki has become synonymous with “sugar daddy,” and he’s become the laughing stock of Tanzania. Sugar daddies have been a fixture in Tanzanian life; the type of man who preys on young girls, offering money, trinkets or gifts, in exchange for sex. While this practice of cross generational sex was common, there was little action against it.

Hence, Fataki was born. He was made into the star of a series of 14-radio spots designed to raise awareness and help put an end to cross-generational sex, which contributes to the spread of HIV among youth, teen pregnancy and rising school dropout rates.

While Fataki is the star of the campaign named in his honor, he is far from adored. Rather, the ads ridicule this fictional man and his tactics. The ads portray young girls, women and other community members intervening and stopping Fataki relationships, stigmatizing what was once acceptable behavior. The radio campaign is supported with banners and posters that put a face on Fataki.

The Fataki campaign is part of Strategic Radio Communication for Development (STRADCOM), a three-year project funded by the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and USAID and led by CCP. STRADCOM wanted the Fataki ads to be humorous and to bring in HIV messages in a subtle way, fearing that after years of daily talk about HIV, explicit messages would fall on deaf ears. STRADCOM evaluated the impact of the campaign and found that 88% of adults in the pilot test region of Morogoro said that as a result of the campaign they felt they could now do something to help solve the problem of cross-generational sex.

The ads have proven so popular that STRADCOM has fielded calls from radio stations asking to play the Fataki ads more often, since listeners were calling in to request them, just like they would their favorite song.

Fataki now enjoys national stature with the roll out of the campaign to other districts in Tanzania.