Today, misinformation can spread quickly, and bias can overshadow facts. For over 30 years, Ged Kenslea, Senior Director of Communications at AIDS Healthcare Foundation, has seen false and damaging stereotypes target people living with AIDS and HIV. In his work, Ged has challenged those misconceptions and made it his core focus to build a communications platform that combats stigma. In today’s episode, Jenn and Kalli welcome Ged to discuss his career highlights in educating the public about one of the most devastating health crises in history. The power of PR and marketing can do more than promote a message; it can shift narratives and create meaningful change.
imPRessions S3 EP 14 Transcript
Jenn
Hey Kalli.
Kalli
Hey Jenn.
Jenn
So, I have a question for you. A little bit more serious than our usual intros and beginnings, but do you ever think about whether something you lived through or just something you’ve read in a history book, what the world would have looked like if we didn’t tackle certain epidemics as quickly as we have?
Kalli
You know, I definitely do. And it’s funny that you mention that because I was just thinking even the other day about, when COVID hit, people were scared to talk about it. They didn’t know what was going on. And there was just so much miscommunication, confusion, and people really like had a lot of feelings about it. And there was a lot of stigma around it that I think the communication factor really played a big role in how it was communicated and how the information about it was communicated.
Jenn
Yeah, exactly. And I think that getting sort of on top of something, and unfortunately, COVID may not be the best example because our country kind of failed with that. But other places didn’t. And there have been other times historically when communications did not fail, specifically with the AIDS epidemic. Obviously, people were very scared back when it started to happen here in the US. And it’s a global issue, obviously. So, everybody knows. But specifically talking about the US, because that is sort of where we’re putting our conversation today, to sort of talk about how you can get behind conversations that are really important to change perceptions and break stigmas. People were so scared about AIDS because they didn’t know about it, because they didn’t have the awareness and we didn’t have the medical research. So, today’s guest is Ged Kenslea. He is the Senior Director of Communications for the AIDS Healthcare Foundation. So, I’m excited for this one because I think it’s really going to talk, we’re really going to dive into how to sort of break those stigmas and really move forward the communication.
Kalli
No, that’s great. I think it’s a really important conversation. So, I’m looking forward to diving in.
Jenn
In a world where misinformation can spread rapidly and bias can run deep, the need for thoughtful, purposeful communication is more critical than ever. For almost three decades, Ged Kenslea has served as the Senior Director of Communications for AIDS Healthcare Foundation and has dedicated his career to using strategic messaging to challenge misconceptions and educate the public about this devastating disease. Today’s conversation will highlight how PR and marketing professionals can go beyond traditional campaigns to shift narratives and advocate for marginalized communities. Hi Ged, it’s a pleasure to have you on our show today.
Ged
Thank you for having me.
Kalli
So, Ged, let’s start with a little bit about you. Tell us about your role at the AIDS Healthcare Foundation and your journey into nonprofit communications.
Ged
Sure, thank you. I have been with AIDS Healthcare since 1996 as the Senior Director of Communications. Prior to that, I had actually worked for about five years for what was then the NBC TV and radio affiliate in Boston, and then subsequently doing freelance work, mostly nonprofit, when I first moved to Los Angeles, where AHF is headquartered. And I will say the five years that I had spent at the TV station, really prepared me extremely well to come in to work in the nonprofit environment because I had an understanding of what our news desk at the TV station would be looking for, potential soft feature stories. So, it was a real benefit for me when I moved into the nonprofit arena, knowing what were the sorts of things that were sort of catnap for news directors and assignment editors. And I would tell you back in that day, if you put glitter in your envelope with your press release because you thought it was going to be fun for your party, that was the kiss of death because the assignment area was like a 12 foot by 12 foot room that usually had three people working in it. And all of a sudden, they had glitter all over their floor. So, they would immediately put that into the circular file. But I moved to Los Angeles for personal reasons, but when I started at AIDS Healthcare Foundation, literally the week that I started working at AIDS Healthcare Foundation, that was literally the week in July of 1996 that what came to be known as antiretroviral therapy, or the three-drug combination to treat HIV and AIDS, was introduced to the world. So, I enjoyed my time at the TV station, but I had experience doing other freelance work when I first moved. I worked on behalf of GLAAD regarding the Lift the Ban, the ban on gay and lesbians in the military, as well as on the freedom to marry issue there as well.
Jenn
Wow, that’s incredible. And I laughed a little bit when you said the glitter in the press kit, because today, nowadays with everything being so digital, I’m sure some of our younger listeners are like, what?
Ged
Oh, absolutely. I actually shipped a brand-new combination fax machine, answering machine, telephone combination from Boston to Los Angeles that was key to my work freelance for my first year and a half or two years in Los Angeles in the early 90s.
Jenn
Oh, wow. Believe it or not, kids, back in the day, we did things through snail mail. And so, talk about that through the evolution a little bit, because that’s definitely something that we’re constantly talking about on our show is sort of the evolution of PR and marketing. And it is one of those industries that kind of makes it unique in itself that it really does kind of stay with the times. So can you tell us a little bit about your mission at the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, how your work has evolved in recent years, especially as the messaging has shifted today, the connotation behind being HIV positive is not what it was, 40 years ago. So, can you tell us a little bit about the communications and marketing evolution there?
Ged
Absolutely. I mean, when I first began, as I had said, we had three hospices. We actually did close down one in the first few months because of the drugs, the arrival of the combination therapies. And people literally, I mean, they called it the Lazarus effect, that people who had been consigned to hospice which meant that their expectation was that they were not going to live more than six months, were getting up from their beds and going back to their lives there as well. But in the intervening years, while the technologies of conducting effective PR and marketing has evolved, so has AIDS Healthcare Foundation. I mean, we literally began as a hospice provider providing the last residential facilities for many, many of our clients. We now have segued over the intervening 29 years to the largest AIDS organization in the world, now caring for 2.3 million people in 48 countries and counting around the globe. But we also have transitioned beyond just caring for people with HIV and AIDS. We have a huge arm that is what we call our wellness centers that are treating and testing and treating people for other STDs, other sexually transmitted infections. As of 2017, opened up a housing arm because we realized housing is a critical determinant of health. And more recently, we have a new program called our Food for Health Program. So, we are a multifaceted public health organization operating on the medical front, the housing front, and food and security as well.
Kalli
So, how do you balance that empathy-driven storytelling with hard-hitting facts? Because you’re really trying to reach an audience that may have some preconceived notions. So, you know, how do you balance that out?
Ged
Balancing the empathy-driven storytelling with hard-hitting facts as we try to reach our audiences, really, like anyone, I think we hopefully rely on really the basic of good storytelling, be it our own narrative in television, radio, and online interviews with media, as well as on our social platforms. And we, it’s healthcare, we’re really fortunate to have access to good storytellers internally. I really think that the more that I see myself talking, the less that I feel like I’m doing my job. My job is to put other people, internally or externally, who are more expert in the area or the topic in front of the microphone or in front of the camera. And we also never put anyone who doesn’t wish to speak publicly in front of a camera or a microphone. But we really have the ability, with so many clients and so many patients and so many staff, we now have 7,000, over 7,000 staff, we really can draw on a deep bench of people with compelling telling stories or people who can translate the sort of gobbledygook of what their particular area may be, be it finance or medicine, into accessible English or other languages that the public can access far more readily. And that said, there are clients of ours that maybe never have spoken about their infection or their situation but may be willing to do that. So, we will do media training with them so they can be better advocates for themselves and for people like them. I mean, that really is one of the other things is communicating to people in ways that’s really going to get to them, really going to invite them in and hopefully urge them to get the care and services that they may need.
Jenn
Absolutely. And even though AIDS Healthcare Foundation is a nonprofit, a big part of what you do is coming up with compelling marketing, compelling PR. And I know in our intro call; you told us about the Coachella billboard. And I don’t want to give too much away. I kind of want you to tell the story to our listeners, but that was kind of a big risk for you and sort of putting up that billboard, but it resulted in a really big win. So, can you tell us a little bit about sort of what happened there?
Ged
Yeah, absolutely. As I said, we are an enormous nonprofit agency operating now in 17 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, as well as 47 other countries. But we’re also, we try to really be prudent and frugal, because we are a nonprofit, about when and where we place our public-facing artworks, the billboards and so forth. So, for the past few years, we’ve put billboards up in conjunction with the Coachella Music Festival here in Indio, in Inland Empire, California. And as people know, Coachella is the two-weekend music festival out in Indio. We put up one single billboard. This billboard is playing off the headliner, Lady Gaga. Our billboard really had two words and a URL. Bad romance, question mark. And the URL was freeSTDcheck.org. So, as people were leaving Coachella to head back to Los Angeles and or to airports to catch their planes, they could catch this billboard. And it was a singular placement that has so far resulted in coverage on the three major stations in Palm Springs itself. But we did this initially last year with a billboard that instead it had the same URL, freeSTDcheck.org. But last year, the billboard’s headline was, Catch More Than Vibes, also with a question mark. And we used imagery that we had sourced that resembled the Coachella graphics. And that prompted a cease-and-desist letter from the operators of the festival, which to my boss is like catnip. We try to be cheeky and creative, and we’re also… we don’t really shy from a fight. I mean, it’s interesting, over the years that I have been here, what I’ve seen is we’ve used oftentimes outside vendors, outside ad agencies, outside law firms doing the yeoman’s share of our service work for us. And what we came to realize was over the years was in particular, it would take longer to turn product around. It costs more, and oftentimes the outside vendor, be it a law firm or be it an ad agency, a lot of times didn’t really get the mindset of AIDS Healthcare Foundation. I mean, we really have a full-service ad agency now in-house, our AHF media department. Over the years, we have developed that in-house. But a lot of that really goes to the sort of more risqué advertising as well as the presence that we have at gay prides and things where we’ll have cheeky approaches that really invite people in.
Kalli
Yeah, that’s great. And you did mention you never shy away from a fight. So, I’m sure one of the biggest fights that, as you’re going through all these things and trying to get the message out, is fighting a lot of myths and stigmas around HIV and AIDS. You know, what are some of the most persistent myths or stigmas that you’re actively trying to combat through your PR efforts?
Ged
There’s misinformation about HIV and AIDS and STDs. And there’s also a lot of apathy or a lot of lack of knowledge. And in particular, some communities more than others. I mean, we did a campaign in the southern US, which is really where the epidemic of HIV and AIDS is most robust at this point. I mean, the epidemic that was predominantly among gay men in the early to mid-80s segued and now has become more rural and poor and also is affecting more people of color. And we did a very successful campaign of billboards throughout the South that also prompted both a lot of media coverage, but also pushback. I mean, I have letters and emails and voice messages from pastors because we put up a billboard throughout the south of different clients who are HIV positive and the billboard simply said, God loves me. And it was the person, just a really nice photograph of the person, you know, with their thumbs up sort of pointing to themselves there as well. So, stigma still in certain communities against the disease and or people who are infected and living with HIV and AIDS. But there’s also a lack of knowledge as well. And there’s a reluctance to break down barriers and seek out the care and services that people need. And right now, we only have 57% of those living with HIV who know it in the US who are virally suppressed. We want to get more. Our own clinics, we have a much higher rate of suppression, but we work really hard to get and keep and achieve that retention and care and that adherence to drug regimens.
Jenn
I know it’s, you know, and it is in a sense of topic when you’re figuring out like your marketing and your PR. And while I know that you’re okay with being a little cheeky, and I love that, and I think that’s really effective, I’m curious because the brand, kind of the messaging around it is sensitive. How do you choose the right ambassador or spokesperson? Because I think that’s a little different than having a billboard that might be a little like tongue in cheek. You know, you really want to make sure that you partner with somebody that isn’t going to put their foot in their mouth or isn’t going to have their own crisis or something like that. So how do you choose the right person to move forward with in a partnership?
Ged
It’s interesting. We actually have an active campaign going on internally right now to recruit what we are calling ambassadors from our AHF staff here in the U.S. to serve both as internal ambassadors and motivators for their fellow staff and fellow employees, as well as to serve as potential spokespeople for external media and communication. We also have what we refer to as AHF mobilizers, people who participate in protests and public action, and also may go to the different state capitals to speak for or against legislation that we may think is good or bad, depending. Both of these groups are individuals who are living with HIV, some for three or four decades, who now speak really openly and passionately about their own experience and the roadblocks that we face, particularly in places like the Bible Belt and the Southern US. We also have a slew, I think it’s now 13 or 14 different affiliate organizations. These are a lot of AIDS nonprofits, some older than AIDS Healthcare Foundation. I mean, we kicked off officially in 1987. And these were smaller agencies or larger agencies around the US that were facing financial challenges that we have partnered with them. We’ve provided sort of a financial lifeline, but they’ve also provided us access to the communities that they serve and have been serving for three or more decades there. So, it’s been a win-win. We’ve been able to help share our messaging through these partner organizations, these affiliate organizations, in the face of all the attacks on DEI of late, we have affinity groups that we have pulled together that are volunteer-run organizations of AHF staff that provide HIV, AIDS, STD education and outreach to specific groups. So, we have a group called LOUD, the Latino Outreach and Understanding Division. We have a group called BLACC, B-L-A-C-C, the Black Leadership AIDS Crisis Coalition. We have a group called Impulse, which is really targeting younger gay and bisexual men, that is another opportunity for us to get our message more successfully out to communities about prevention, about testing, and if need be, treatment.
Kalli
How do you approach communication during major cultural moments like Pride Month, World AIDS Day? You know, you know, you said you’re trying to be cheeky, but how do you do that without sounding like a broken record? Obviously, it’s been the same message for a long time, but people still need to hear it.
Ged
It hasn’t been easy. And in particular, in essence, HIV segued from being a fatal disease to one that is a chronic, manageable condition. And emotionally, that becomes a much less compelling story as far as fundraising, as far as coaching or getting media coverage as well. So, when you get things like Pride Month, World AIDS Day, how do you do this without sounding like a broken record? We’ve sort of taken a page from the entertainment community, and for the past decade or so, we have hosted a free World AIDS Day concert that has been… somewhat roving. We’ve had it in different cities across the country, but with headliners, with major entertainment stars. The first one we started out in 2016 right here in Hollywood at the Dolby Theater where they oftentimes hold the Oscars with Patti LaBelle, Common. We actually had Harry Belafonte honored with our AHF Lifetime Achievement Award for his activism and his humanitarian work. Harry Belafonte even marched with us on Hollywood Boulevard at the young and tender age of 89. And since then, we have World AIDS Day observations. We’ve been marking World AIDS Day. We did a really beautiful Icons of Dance tribute at the Apollo Theater in 2018 that was headlined by Debbie Allen, who has been really a tireless supporter and ally to AIDS Healthcare Foundation. And most recently, last year, Ricky Martin really blew the house down in Miami. And he is an openly gay man now living with a husband and two or three children, but he was one who really got our messaging and really was a great ally. So, we believe there is still a very important place in prevention, in the prevention arena for condom use. So, we, back in 2009, created what now has become known, really the world over, is something called International Condom Day. We thought it would be good. We put it on the day before Valentine’s Day. Over the years, it has grown. It’s been sort of also lighthearted and kind of cheeky. Now, most of our 48 countries do have some sort of event to celebrate or to mark International Condom Day and promote condom use. Over the past three years or so, we’ve done burlesque parodies. These are really kind of dance extravaganzas. The first two years, it was what we called a West Side Story Burlesque, which played off of the iconic musical and film. And then this past year and this coming year will be something called Oh Mama, which is a takeoff on the very, very successful and really easy to parody Mamma Mia, ABBA franchise there as well. So, it’s important for us to try and promote condom use to help alleviate other STDs, unwanted pregnancies, as well. Because again, we’re also hitting a point that STDs have been skyrocketing, and particularly among younger people, among the 13- to 24-year-olds. So, we just need to remind people that condoms are there, and they work. We give away free condoms. I want to say I have last year, last year, HF gave away 56 and a half million condoms worldwide. We did 4,700,000 free HIV tests. And when identifying 123,000 people who are HIV positive, that was roughly a 2.6 positivity rate. And from the sort of public health official trackings, that is good. For a testing program to be considered successful, it should have at least about a 2% positivity. You should at least be able to identify two people out of every 100 that may be infected with HIV. That’s a benchmark that tells you that the outreach you’re doing is really effective, that you are really reaching an amount of people that are in need of that information and services.
Jenn
Yeah, absolutely. This is really great, great information, Ged. I’m really glad that you were able to share all this. Just for our last question for today, I would just like to ask a lot of our guests on the show. For some of the younger people that are listening up and coming just out of college or starting their careers, what advice would you give them going into communications or PR, especially in the nonprofit world?
Ged
Well, in the nonprofit world, when people are coming out now out of school or just wanting to change up their profession, it’s kind of a similar time when I first came to Los Angeles because having done the couple of freelance jobs that I had done both for-profit and for non-profit, gave me experience and gave me the opportunity to network and segue into the position that I did get. And it also gave me experience outside of what I had thought I wanted. I mean, when I first came to LA, I thought I maybe would want to work in entertainment PR. One of my freelance gigs was working for a company called Clothe Inc, but it sort of broadened my horizons. I was simpatico with AHF and its mission. I also, when I first moved here, I worked as a volunteer buddy with AIDS Project Los Angeles, another AIDS nonprofit here as well, that I was matched with different individuals to, you know, take them to doctor’s appointments, go to the movies, help them with shopping and things like that as well. So, I know it’s a tough market that people are getting out of school into now with a bit of a dwindling economy. But it doesn’t mean, it only takes one job for people, regardless of how bleak an economy may be. And if they’re having trouble getting a job, if they can do volunteer work, that may not even be necessarily PR work. It may be helping with immobilization, with a protest, with some sort of advocacy action that, A, broadens their experience and their horizons, but also may help lead to a job that they may not think that they had wanted or could be qualified to do.
Jenn
Absolutely. I think that’s great advice. I think we’ve all kind of come into that realm before where we kind of start one down one road and we go somewhere else. So, I think that’s a really great point. And I think today’s conversation was great. Although, you know, medical research has done wonders in combating AIDS, there is still a longstanding stigma that Ged and your work at the AIDS Health Foundation is working tirelessly to dismantle. We, Kalli and I think the work that you’ve been doing is incredible. And we thank you again for being a guest today and providing valuable insight for our listeners on how PR and storytelling can break barriers.
Ged
Well, thank you for having me. It’s been really a pleasure.
Jenn
All right. Well, another great episode is in the books, and we want to take a moment to thank our listeners for their support. Follow us on social media to get updates and we welcome you to reach out anytime to Kalli and myself at impressions@pollackgroup.com. See you soon.
