MTVu, known for its funding support of the award winning serious game, Darfur is Dying, has once again taken one of the most difficult topics in our society and dealt with it head on - youth AIDS.
Here is the full press release:
mtvU & KAISER FAMILY FOUNDATION
LAUNCH POSorNOT.com TO CHALLENGE STIGMA, FIGHT SPREAD OF HIV/AIDS
Wyclef Jean, Fall Out
Boy, Will.i.am, Alyssa Milano, Say Anything, Perez Hilton, Angels &
Airwaves, Atmosphere and Many More Helping Fuel Game’s Viral Spread
Developed in Partnership With POZ
Magazine, “Pos or Not” Confronts Stereotypes Through
Personal Stories of Americans Living With and Without HIV/AIDS
New York, NY – April 30, 2008 – mtvU, MTV’s Peabody and Emmy Award-winning college
network, and the Kaiser Family Foundation, in partnership with POZ Magazine,
today unveiled "Pos or Not" (www.PosorNot.com): an online game that challenges
stereotypes and breaks down the barriers that may prevent people from talking
openly about HIV/AIDS, getting tested, and using protection. People from
across the U.S.– half of whom are living with HIV and half who are not – share
parts of their lives for “Pos or Not” by divulging their HIV status to help dispel
myths and misconceptions about HIV and AIDS. Players confront their own
HIV stereotypes as they guess whether a profiled participant is positive or
negative based only on a photo and a few personal details, such as what they do
on the weekends or their favorite kind of music.
Among the participants who are
positive, we’re provided a window on the circumstances in which they learn
their HIV status – including after the birth of a child, calls from ex-lovers,
and long-postponed HIV tests. HIV negative participants share how the disease
has touched their lives, claiming boyfriends, girlfriends, mothers and best
friends. Every individual stresses that HIV affects everyone and that the only
way to truly know your own or some else’s HIV status is by getting tested.
While “Pos or Not” confronts
stereotypes and popular misconceptions about HIV/AIDS, it also provides users
with information about HIV prevention, as well as local HIV and STD testing
resources from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC). In
addition, players are invited to join the game to help underscore that there’s
no way to tell a person’s HIV status from how they look or what they do.
Several of the most requested acts
on college campuses and major pop culture figures are also lending their
efforts to help stoke the online viral spread of “Pos or Not,” including Wyclef
Jean, Fall Out Boy, Will.i.am, Alyssa Milano, Say Anything, Perez Hilton,
Angels & Airwaves, Atmosphere, The Spill Canvas, 30 Seconds to Mars, Aesop
Rock, Motion City Soundtrack, All Time Low and Rise Against. Beginning
today, these and many others are sending the game to their fans, families and
friends, via a feature that allows users to share “Pos or Not” with everybody
in their e-mail address books with only a couple clicks.
"‘Pos or Not’ is an urgent
analogue to HotorNot.com, designed to capture college students’ attention and
harness the viral nature of the Web in the ongoing fight against the spread of
HIV/AIDS,'" said Stephen Friedman, GM, mtvU. "‘Pos or Not’ was
created to shatter myths, challenge assumptions and promote responsible sexual
behavior – and we salute every participant, as well as the team of college
students who conceived the game, for breathing life into it."
“‘Pos or Not’ confronts the stigma and stereotypes that fuel
the continued spread of this disease some 25 years since the first diagnosis,”
said Tina Hoff, vice president and director of Entertainment Media Partnerships
at the Kaiser Family Foundation. “‘Pos or Not’ has the powerful effect of
allowing young people across the country to learn more about those infected and
affected by HIV/AIDS and in doing so hopefully form a more personal
understanding of the disease.”
"The HIV-positive community has
the unique ability to debunk myths and dissolve dangerous stereotypes around
HIV/AIDS," said Regan Hofmann, editor-in-chief of POZ magazine.
"Having a face-to-face encounter with a person living with the virus can
also positively affect the choices people make regarding behaviors that can
lead to their contracting HIV. I think that ‘Pos or Not’ is a wonderful
way to allow the HIV community to serve as an awareness and prevention tool for
those who are – but who do not believe themselves to be – at risk."
“Pos or Not” was inspired by the
winners of the “Change the Course of HIV Challenge,” a nationwide competition
that asked college students to propose a viral, Web-based game that would
creatively engage people to help combat the spread of HIV/AIDS. The winning
concept was submitted by a team from the Florida Interactive Entertainment
Academy and included designers Brendan McLeod and Matthew Laurence, programmers
Chris Camilleri and Gabriel Montagne, and artist Chip Lundell.
College students helped conceive
“Pos or Not” and are pioneering the future of digital activism every day, so
mtvU, the Kaiser Family Foundation and POZ Magazine are calling on users to
imagine ways the game can be even more viral and impactful. Anyone with a
vision for how “Pos or Not” can be effectively executed on other platforms
(mobile, social networks, etc.), remixed, or in any way serve as an even more
powerful call to action on the HIV/AIDS epidemic are encouraged to send ideas
to MyIdeas@PosorNot.com. mtvU
and the Kaiser Family Foundation are committing to incorporate the best
concepts into future versions of the game – or a completely re-imagined
iteration – so it continues to evolve and reach more people.
“Pos or Not” follows on the success
of “Darfur is Dying” (www.DarfurisDying.com),
mtvU’s student-developed videogame – now played more than 3 million times by
over 1.5 million people – designed to spread awareness of and spur action to
end the genocide in Darfur. “Darfur is Dying” is a narrative-based
simulation where the user, from the perspective of a displaced Darfurian,
negotiates forces that threaten the survival of his or her refugee
camp. The game is a key element of mtvU’s nearly four-year, student-led,
Emmy Award-winning Sudan campaign.
Representatives from mtvU and
the Kaiser Family Foundation will be presenting “Pos or Not” at the fourth
annual Games for Health Conference, taking place May 8 – 9 in Baltimore,
Maryland. To learn more about the conference, please visit http://www.gamesforhealth.org.
About The Kaiser Family Foundation: The Kaiser Family Foundation is a non-profit,
private operating foundation dedicated to providing information and analysis on
health care issues to policymakers, the media, the health care community, and
the general public. The foundation is not associated with Kaiser Permanente
or Kaiser Industries. Information on HIV/AIDS is available at www.kff.org, and a daily news summary report on
developments in HIV/AIDS is available on www.kaisernetwork.org, the Foundation’s free health information
service.
About mtvU: Broadcast to more than 750 college campuses and via top
cable distributors in 700 college communities nationwide, mtvU reaches upwards
of 9 million U.S. college students – making it the largest, most comprehensive
television network just for college students. Twenty-four hours a day,
seven days a week, mtvU can be seen in the dining areas, fitness centers,
student lounges and dorm rooms of campuses throughout the U.S, as well as on
cable systems from Charter Communications, Verizon FiOS TV, Suddenlink
Communications, AT&T u-Verse and nearly 70 others. mtvU is dedicated
to every aspect of college life, reaching students everywhere they are: on-air,
online and on campus. mtvU programs music videos from emerging artists
that can’t be seen anywhere else, news, student life features and initiatives
that give college students the tools to advance positive social
change. mtvU is always on campus, with more than 500 events per year,
including exclusive concerts, giveaways, shooting mtvU series and
more. For more information about mtvU, and a complete programming
schedule, visit www.mtvU.com. mtvU also owns and operates
the College Media Network, the largest interactive network of online college
newspapers in the US , and RateMyProfessors.com, the Internet’s largest listing
of collegiate professor ratings. The College Media Network comprises
nearly 600 campus publications that serve institutions including Brown University,
the University of Illinois, the University of Southern California, the University
of Texas at Austin and Duke University , with a combined enrollment of over 5.5
million students, reaching an average of 5 million unique users each
month. RateMyProfessors.com reaches approximately 2.9 million college
students each month, via the site’s more than 6.6 million student-generated
ratings of over 1,000,000 college professors.
MTV Networks, a unit of
Viacom (NYSE: VIA, VIA.B), is one of the world's leading creators of
programming and content across all media platforms. MTV Networks, with more
than 150 channels worldwide, owns and operates the following television
programming services - MTV: MUSIC TELEVISION, MTV2, VH1, mtvU, NICKELODEON,
NICK at NITE, COMEDY CENTRAL, TV LAND, SPIKE TV, CMT, NOGGIN/THE N, VH1
CLASSIC, MTVN INTERNATIONAL and THE DIGITAL SUITE FROM MTV NETWORKS, a package
of 13 digital services, all of these networks trademarks of MTV Networks. MTV
Networks connects with its audiences through its robust consumer products
businesses and its more than 300 interactive properties worldwide, including
online, broadband, wireless and interactive television services and also has
licensing agreements, joint ventures, and syndication deals whereby all of its
programming services can be seen worldwide.
About Poz: POZ is the premier lifestyle, treatment and advocacy
magazine for people living with--and those affected by--HIV and AIDS. The
award-winning magazine and website (poz.com) provide the most complete and
expert HIV/AIDS information available in the United States. Together, the
magazine and website reach more than 70 percent of all of those living with
HIV/AIDS who are aware of their status. The website provides extensive
opportunity for both public and private social networking and represents one of
the largest communities of openly HIV-positive people in the world. For more
information, please visit poz.com.
