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Publications
Promoting Sexual Responsibility in the Philippines through MusicSongs Point the Way to Sexual Responsibility in the Philippines Entertainment educates in the Philippines and in other developing countries, where star-studded entertainment has communicated messages of sexual responsibility to young people. In the Philippines the message was "avoid casual sex." The start--young singer Lea Salonga, now internationally known for her role in the musical Miss Saigon . The Population Center Foundation (PCF) of the Philippines developed the mass media "enter-educate" project with Population Communication Services of the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health in 1987 to respond to high rates of teenage pregnancy in Metro Manila. With songs on the radio and music videos, TV spots, movie theater announcements, a telephone hotline, and counseling, the campaign reached young people through many channels. Within a month of release two songs, "I Still Believe" and "That Situation" topped the charts at several Metro Manila radio stations. The songs' messages: "We can wait for love until we know it's true," and "I don't think it's right to need me just for a lonely night." The campaign led thousands of Philippine teenagers to talk about sexual responsibility and to seek more information. Just halfway into the 30-month project, 92% of young people ages 12 to 24 surveyed in Metro Manila knew the featured song, "I Still Believe." Nine of every 10 said that they liked it. More important, 51% said that the songs led them to discuss boy-girl relationships and sexual responsibility with friends or parents and to seek more information--often important steps toward changing behavior. The "enter-educate" project succeeded by combining popular performers, commercial-quality music videos, and professional promotion, backed up by effective information and referral services. In addition, a well-targeted marketing campaign drew over US$1 million in financial support and donated air time and services from Pepsi Cola and other corporate sponsors. Ms. Salonga, who later played the lead role in the London and Broadway musical Miss Saigon and the lead female voice in the Disney animated film Aladdin , worked for reduced fees. The campaign strategy was to capture young people's attention with songs that alluded to sexual responsibility and later reach this audience with more direct messages through the TV and radio spots and theater announcements. These spots, some featuring Ms. Salonga, promoted the "Dial-A-Friend" telephone hotline, whose counselors could refer callers to any of 40 diverse social service agencies for further information and help. The ads dealt with peer pressure for sex; unwanted pregnancy; and sexual identity and homosexuality. During the campaign the ads grew more specific in their subject matter and more explicit in their language.
The project design incorporated local talent, focus groups, and direct interpersonal contacts. Focus group research helped to identify artists who would be appropriate for and trusted by the Filipino youth. A local company conducted a contest among Filipino composers for the songs. Ms. Salonga spoke to some 50,000 students during her tour of the schools. The tours culminated in mini-concerts and were a major component of the promotional strategy which also included students' essays and art contests. The "Dial-a-Friend," hotline was in place by the time of the second song's release. Television and radio ads announced its availability. Four counselors gave information and emotional support to callers and referred them to the project's 40 counseling centers including the Catholic Church and PCF. "Many people were skeptical about the hotline," says Jose Rimon II, Deputy Director of JHU/CCP. It was a new phenomenon in the Philippines. Although there were counseling centers, there was no place where teenagers could seek information anonymously. The hotline filled this gap. The hotline also served to document the impact of the campaign." "Unfortunately we made a mistake by only opening four lines," says Rimon. Extrapolations from a survey show that listeners placed some 149,000 calls to the hotline, but only 8,238 got through during the first seven months.
Cost sharing was a key component of the music project strategy. PCF vigorously marketed the project to local corporations. The project earned over US $74,000 in corporate support and in-kind donations; over US$ 1.2 million in free airtime (calculated based on cost of commercial airtime; and another $57,000 in free press coverage (calculated based on 50% of the cost of advertising space). Several months after the hotline began, corporate officials at the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company donated TV and radio time that they had purchased for their own commercials to air Dial-A-Friend spots. They also provided funding for the salaries of telephone counselors from July 1989 to December 1991, long after JHU/PCS support for the project had ended. Other corporate supporters such as Pespi Cola, AGFA, and Pizza Hut provided contest prizes, giveaways such as perfume, shampoo, and thought cards. Pepsi Cola printed high quality promotional posters for the two songs, donated TV time for the music videos and spots, and provided a streamer for Lea Salonga's campus tours.
PCF designed a comprehensive evaluation into the project. The evaluation involved three sample surveys of youth in Metro Manila and a monitoring system for Dial-A-Friend. The three surveys of 600 youths, male and female, were taken (1) before the song I Still Believe was released, in March 1988, (2) a mid-project survey in August 1988, and (3) a final survey in November, 1988. All respondents were between the ages of 12 to 24. "The Philippine project proved once again that entertainment is the best way to reach large numbers of teenagers," says Rimon. "Entertainment is popular, pervasive, personal, passionate, persuasive, practical, and profitable," adds Rimon. The project was supported by the United States Agency for International Development. |
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