The Philippines Multimedia Campaign for Young People project: summary of evaluation results.

This paper summarizes the results of the evaluation of the impact of the Philippines multimedia campaign for Young People Project. Initiated in June 1987 until the end of 1989 its objective was to reach young people aged 12-24 years living in Metro Manila with a variety of messages to promote sexual responsibility. During the campaign the Population Center Foundation (PCF) produced two popular songs and music videos sung by famous professional entertainers. In addition short television and radio spots posters buttons tours of schools essay writing and art contests were used to promote further the messages of sexual responsibility and to link the songs to a special youth telephone counseling hotline called “Dial-A-Friend”. Overall evaluation findings demonstrated that the use of professional entertainers and investment in high standards of production quality attracted corporate support and access to media. Appropriate celebrities and role models were shown to enhance the visibility credibility and overall excitement to the media campaign. Moreover the youth were not simply entertained with some songs but were also provided with reinforcements for social and sexual responsibility and with an innovative telephone support system. Finally PCF proved that they could successfully apply the enter-educate approach via popular music to promote sexual responsibility among young people and at the same time gain media corporate and community support for it.