Texting With a Purpose

From Ashton Kutcher’s competitive twit-off with CNN’s Larry King (Ashton won the campaign to reach a 1,000,000 Twitter followers) to Oprah Winfrey, Barbara Walters and others’ first-time on-air twittering, social media made a big step forward in the consciousness of the public these past few weeks.

At Cable Positive, we use social media to empower and educate young people about sexual health and HIV prevention. Our Youth AIDS Media Institute (YAMI) created a multi-platform educational campaign, including print, web, video and, yes, texting components. The campaign in its entirety can be seen at www.nololinhiv.org.

The mobile component is particularly innovative and provides an on-going reminder and engagement with the target audience over the course of an entire year. Once someone signs up, once a week for the next year they get a text message that uses humor to keep the issues of HIV/AIDS and sexual health “top of mind”.

Go ahead and sign up by texting “NOLOL” to 61827 on your mobile phone. Or, better yet, forward a link to the campaign to the young people in your life—your friends, children, nieces and nephews—and encourage them to check it out. Or link to the YAMI campaign from your Facebook or Twitter page.

The young people who created the YAMI campaign with Cable Positive scheduled the weekly text messages to deliver every Friday afternoon. That is when their peers are finishing up their school week and thinking about their social plans for the weekend.

It is Friday afternoon as I write this and not long ago, my iPhone peeped and I saw the text message from the YAMI campaign. It makes me smile every week because it reminds me of the powerful impact of Cable Positive’s work and the positive influence the cable industry is having on the lives of young people across the nation.

That influence will grow in the months to come as our YAMI campaign is rolled out nationwide. Thanks again to Motorola for their support of this innovative program.

Hitting the Ground Running

By Sean Strub

Just over two weeks ago, I succeeded Steve Villano as Cable Positive's President and CEO. I’ve admired Cable Positive for a while now, and it is with great pleasure that I accept this new role. I am honored and excited to be a part of the great team Steve has put together and by the opportunity to build on Cable Positive's tremendous record of accomplishment. Steve and I will still be working together at Cable Positive for the next several months, to facilitate a smooth transition and introduce me to Cable Positive's regional chapters and industry leaders.

My first week on the job was a total immersion in the cable industry, as it was during the NCTA convention in Washington, DC. The week was a whirlwind, and I returned to the office with great enthusiasm, a profusion of ideas and a two inch stack of business cards.

I was struck by the tremendous pride expressed by so many people in the industry and the genuine warmth and friendliness with which I was greeted. The only comment I heard more often than "welcome to the industry!" was "you've got big shoes to fill, succeeding Steve!”

MSNBC's Rachel Maddow was our MC at Cable Positive's Power Awards ceremony during the convention. Insight's Michael Willner introduced Rachel, who presented awards to Rainbow Media's Josh Sapan and Charter Communications' Neil Smit for their leadership and commitment in the fight against HIV. Nearly 200 people attended the event, including Showtime’s Matt Blank, Cablevision’s Jim and Charles Dolan as well as many others.

Rachel spoke movingly of her own record of AIDS activism--which is exceptionally admirable--and how the HIV epidemic has been a defining influence on her generation. I am proud to note that Rachel was once wrote POZ Magazine (which I founded) back before she had her show on Air America.

Here are a few clips of the ceremony:










We also unveiled at the convention the results of Cable Positive's first Youth AIDS Media Institute (YAMI), funded by the Motorola Foundation, which brought 17 young people (ages 16 to 23) from several states together to work intensely for six days to create a multi-platform peer-to-peer HIV education campaign. The resulting campaign (including video PSAs, a website, print and mobile components) is fantastic and demonstrates how much more effective HIV education and prevention campaigns can be when they are created by the communities they intend to educate or influence.

Check out the website at www.NoLOLinHIV.org or click here to see one of the No LOL in HIV public service announcements. We will be rolling this campaign out nationwide over the next several months. If there are teenagers you care about, send them a note urging them to check out www.NoLOLinHIV.org.

What this group of exceptional young people accomplished in just a few days is remarkable, in large part because they are remarkable. Everyone who interacted with the YAMI participants--Cable Positive staff and board members, Zenita Henderson and other representatives from Motorola and others in the industry--found great inspiration in the extraordinary creativity, energy and commitment of the young people who became “YAMIU’s” first graduating class.

Their final presentation brought tears to the eye of more than one observer. Right afterwards, Mediacom’s Italia Commisso-Weinand leaned over to me and whispered "with kids like these, there's hope for the world." Italia's right, because hope is what it's all about.

Youth, AIDS & Media: A Powerful Combination

By Steve Villano


Three powerful forces have been building over the past several decades, and, for the first time ever, Cable Positive—with a big boost from the Motorola Foundation—has brought them together with one single goal: saving their generation.

In two weeks, Cable Positive will convene 17 carefully selected young people—aged 16 to 23, from communities of color in Massachusetts, New York and Washington, DC-- at the inaugural session of the Youth AIDS Media Institute University in the nation’s capitol. YAMI-U, as the initiative is called, is a week of intensive training to educate and empower the participants to be HIV/AIDS media advocates using cell phones, blogs, vlogs, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube in the language—and media—that best reaches their peers.

After years of planning and hard work by Cable Positive and Motorola staff—and a remarkable grant of $250,000 from the Motorola Foundation—this groundbreaking initiative is ready to harness the three growing forces of youth, AIDS and media to educate a generation about the disease and how to prevent it.

With direct hands-on assistance from Cable Positive and Motorola staff—and new cell phones provided by Motorola—the young people from AIDS Service Organizations which Cable Positive has supported over the years, will create a multi-platform HIV/AIDS social advocacy campaign consisting of a 3-minute video—which will serve as the foundation for print, web, mobile and video elements of a full scale HIV/AIDS educational campaign.

The statistics are staggering: one of every two new HIV infections in people under 25 years of age worldwide, and in the U.S., two young people per hour are getting infected, according to the CDC. Equally striking, however, is the explosion of cell phone usage in the 13-24 year old market, where, in 2008, an astounding 85% of that market used cell phones as their primary means of communications.

The simple genius of the Cable Positive/Motorola Foundation’s Youth AIDS Media Institute (YAMI), is that it integrates the explosion of new HIV infections among the youth demographic, with the dramatic use of cell phones among that same age group.
Why not, Cable Positive and Motorola asked, use the technology of one, to fight the tenacity and trauma of the other?

Once the YAMI-U advocacy campaign is completed, by March 31, it will—in all its diverse media formats—be made available to cable systems, websites, and text messaging services around the country, as well as to hundreds of local AIDS service organizations and clinics. Cable Positive will also provide a workbook and on-line toolkit to outline the process of how to use this new multi-platform HIV/AIDS awareness campaign to combat the disease among its most vulnerable population.

Youth, AIDS & Media—is there any better way to invest your money than to save an entire generation?

Inspiring us with the facts, and his feelings

By Steve Villano


The first time I met Dan Brenner was over 25 years ago in law school.

I was a student, and he, a guest lecturer, in my Communications Law class, which could sometimes be a bit boring. Except, of course, when Dan Brenner taught. There was no time for boredom. His mind raced so fast, his humor was so relentlessly smart, that if you snoozed, you’d lose.

Fifteen years later, when I was hired to head Cable Positive, I saw Dan again at the National Cable Show in New Orleans. I went up to him at the Cable Positive Board of Directors meeting where I would be introduced, and whispered in his ear.

“I’m the only person in the entire Cable industry who’s ever been your student in law school,” I said, catching him off guard for a nano-second, watching his gentle eyes smile before his warp-speed wit went into action. “And, I must have done a good job,” he said, “because you’ve chosen not to practice Communications Law.”

In fact, Dan did a very good job, which is no surprise to all of us who know, admire and love him. Whether working as Counsel to former FCC Commissioner Mark Fowler, as General Counsel for NCTA over the past 16 years, or as a leading voice on Cable Positive’s Board for the past decade, Dan Brenner’s brilliance in his work was only eclipsed by his compelling compassion.

In venues outside of Cable Positive, it was easy to be distracted by Dan’s intelligence and how devastatingly funny he could be, with a few carefully chosen words and nuances. Cable Positive benefited by both of those gifts of his, but they took a back seat to his passion for the organization’s mission and his deep feeling for individuals—around the world—living with HIV. Yes, Dan was our General Counsel at Cable Positive and our strategic advisor on how best to present our programs to Cable industry CEOs. But he is far more than that.

Dan Brenner represents the heart-and-soul of Cable Positive and why the industry’s commitment to fighting AIDS is so unique. He has always understood intuitively—long before he worked meticulously with staff developing our “One-for-One Program” of domestic and international anti-retroviral drug assistance—how a rich and powerful industry can direct its vast resources to help people in need of assistance.

I always respected and admired how he challenged me constantly at Cable Positive, but I loved the fact that, through our work with him in fighting HIV/AIDS, he has been fearless in acting on his deep feelings for others, inspiring all of us along the way.

Stimulating More Interest in Fighting AIDS

What if every dollar lost in the stock market or the real estate market over the first 30 days of Barack Obama’s presidency represented a new HIV infection among our nation’s most important infrastructure, our people?

Would the emergency response have been as swift? Would all of the centers of economic, political and media power have been galvanized to stop the rapid spread of the disease?

I hope so. But even my quiet confidence in President Obama’s commitment to devote more resources and attention to battling HIV/AIDS in the United States wrestles with my worry that the 28-year long AIDS crisis has already taken a back seat to more pazzazy, prime-time problems. The collapse of banks, auto companies, 401K plans, State budgets, and real estate values have been sweeping enough to engender enormous and essential multi-billion dollar bailouts. But what about HIV/AIDS, which continues to infect one new person in the U.S., every 9 ½ minutes?

In a new set of HIV/AIDS related statistics just released by the CDC (Centers for Disease Control & Prevention), 1.7 million individuals are estimated to be infected with the HIV virus, including nearly 600,000 who have already died of the disease. In the last year for which we have complete records, 2007, another 14, 561 people died AIDS related deaths, and more than 56,000 became newly infected with HIV.

Sure, I can take some solace that help is beginning to trickle down, since the stimulus bill (the Recovery Act) signed by President Obama this week, included $10 billion for NIH to expand biomedical research in AIDS, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, cancer and heart disease. And, I know that the $86.6 billion allocated over the next two years to help states pay for their Medicaid programs, will assist many lower-income people living with HIV. Those are all essential and long overdue, along with huge increases in HIV prevention funding.

But, what’s real always has a way of purifying promises. In 2008, total US federal funding to combat HIV was $23.3 billion, or, considerably less than the bailout given to insurance giant AIG. Of that AIDS money, only 4 percent went toward prevention, and 25 percent of the total amount went to fighting AIDS abroad.

That is simply not good enough to do the work ahead of us in fighting HIV/AIDS. In many American cities and states, citizens who never owned stocks or 401K plans or homes of their own, are faced with the quiet catastrophes every day of struggling with HIV in a society that has lost interest in them, faster than it was lost from bank accounts.

With hundreds of billions of dollars being used to rebuild this country’s collapsing institutions, jobs & infrastructure, attention must be paid to rebuilding the lives of people living with HIV/AIDS—and the President’s State of the Union address next week would be a good place to start.

Hard Times, Heightened Help

by Steve Villano

Bill Gates has set the bar high once again, for philanthropists and donors.

In 2008, the assets of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundations decreased by 20 percent, dropping from $38 billion down to $31 billion. Spending by the Gates Foundation during 2008—on life & death matters like AIDS, Malaria, TB, and education—was at $3.3 billion. So, what is Bill Gates doing in the face of the greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression? He is increasing giving, up to $3.8 billion.

To Gates, the reason is simple and direct: people with money need to give more, not less, when times are hard, since suffering is dramatically increasing.

“Foundations provide something unique when they work on behalf of the poor, who have no market power, or when they work in areas like health or education, where the market does not naturally work toward the right goals. . . “Gates wrote in his first Annual Letter, published just last month, that “These investments are high risk, and high reward. But the reward isn’t measured by financial gain; its measured by the number of lives saved or people lifted out of poverty.”

Economic hard times are not the time for foundations and corporations to make the lives of the people their generosity serves even harder. If giving and generosity follow such a trickle-down trail, Gates argues, then “we will come out of the economic downturn in a world that is even more unequal, with greater inequalities in health and education, and few opportunities for people to improve their lives.”

The exact same practical philosophy applies to Cable Positive and our many corporate supporters in the telecommunications industry. Cable Positive is unique within the entire global business community: no other industry has designated one specific public health crisis as its mission to fight with the powerful weapons at its exclusive disposal—valuable television airtime, the talent and access of top people in the industry, and the money necessary to serve local communities and thousands of cable employees around the country. Over the past 17 years, the Cable industry has donated nearly $2 billion of airtime and some $20 million dollars to the fight against HIV/AIDS.

Now, more than ever before in the organization’s history, we need more resources from our donors, not less, as our programs—like our brand new Youth AIDS Media Institute, funded by the Motorola Foundation—are reaching more and more people, in the most highly affected communities. Cable Positive has truly become—like C-SPAN—a public service of the cable industry. Now is clearly not the time to pull back on those efforts, but to follow the sound advice of Bill Gates: “I am impressed by individuals who continue to give generously even in these difficult times.”

Cable Positive: A Model Program for the Public Good

By Steve Villano

If President Obama is looking for an effective example of how corporations or private industry should behave in this brand new era of social responsibility, he needs to use his Blackberry and click on Cable Positive’s website. For the past 17 years, Cable Positive has been practicing the kind of civic virtue that the new President is preaching.

Since its creation in 1992 by three cable industry activists, Cable Positive has recognized what President Obama called in his Inaugural Address, “the price and promise of citizenship.” Cable’s leaders and the entire industry were never required by law to use our vast resources for public service and the public good—we did it because it was the right thing to do.

In the poetry of his Inaugural speech, President Obama paraphrased the great religious philosopher Teihard de Chardin—whom Mario Cuomo frequently quoted—that the spirit of service was personified by a “willingness to find meaning in something greater than themselves.” That’s precisely the self-less spirit that launched Cable Positive when friends, family members and colleagues of cable industry employees were, in large numbers, dying of AIDS, in the days before the discovery of anti-retroviral drugs.

Industry activists like Jeff Bernstein & Lifetime’s Meredith Wagner, and leaders such as Showtime’s Matt Blank, Reed’s Bill McGorry, Rainbow Media’s Josh Sapan, & Time Warner’s Jeff Bewkes felt compelled by compassion and common sense to use the vast creative and communications power of the cable television industry to spread messages of HIV/AIDS awareness, education and prevention—to help save the lives of people they loved, and with whom they worked. There was no gain in it for them or their companies. They just wanted to do what their hearts & minds told them they had a fundamental human responsibility to do.

These cable leaders, this industry, ushered in what the 44th President of the United States called “a new era of responsibility,” long before Barack Obama was in public office. This industry pioneered corporate social responsibility—on behalf of a huge, worldwide industry with enormous power and reach—specifically, in the fight against HIV/AIDS.

We recognized long ago—and we continue to adhere to these truths—that, as President Obama said, “we have duties to ourselves, our nation and the world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character than giving our all to a difficult task.”

Our work, as an industry and as individuals, personifies this ethic of public service.

The Preacher, the President-Elect and AIDS

By Steve Villano

I was for the election of Barack Obama as President almost two years before his inauguration as President of the United States, in a little less than two weeks. No political figure had inspired me as much about the future, since several giants of my past: JFK, RFK, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Mario M. Cuomo. I saw in Obama the same level of hope, promise, intelligence, evidence-based decision-making, compassion and possibility for the future.

I attended fund-raisers for Obama, contributed money on-line, did telephone canvassing for his election, and contacting friends in key states around the nation urging them to work hard for his election. I was elated over his sweeping victory, as a victory of common sense, compassion, and intelligent problem-solving, over years of hatred, division, and stupidly ignoring reality. As someone who has worked hard to fight HIV/AIDS, and the stigma surrounding the disease, over the past several decades, I was optimistic that, in Obama, we would have a leader who understood the magnitude of the crisis, particularly in communities of color.

The vote in favor of Proposition 8 in California—banning same sex marriages which the state’s highest court said were legal—was particularly strong in Black and Latino communities across California. Friends who logged many hours going door-to-door both for Obama and to defeat Proposition 8, talked of feeling torn apart—the more votes they pulled out for Obama in communities of color, the more votes they were delivering to the opponents of equal marriage rights for all. Stigma against people with AIDS in communities of color—which we know prevents infected individuals from getting treatment and care-- was only trumped by discrimination against gays & lesbians.

Only Obama had the stature and the credibility, we reasoned, to go back into those communities of color—which gave him overwhelming support—and teach them that stigma, as Nelson Mandela said, kills people. And we were confident he would.

Then, along came Rick Warren, whose long record of vile, gay-bashing statements wasn’t bad enough to disqualify him for a speaking role at the most inclusive inauguration in generations. In defending the choice of Warren to invoke a divine purpose for the historic event, Obama’s minions pointed to Warren’s work on AIDS in Africa—although none of them actually knew what that work was. It’s too bad they didn’t do their homework, the way Max Blumenthal did in January 7, 2009’s Daily Beast.

If they did, they would have discovered that Warren’s work in Africa on AIDS, included supporting a weird, witch-hunting Charismatic pastor who burned condoms in the streets of Kampala, Uganda, and campaigned to have gays imprisoned on the basis of sexual orientation.

That kind of work on AIDS is nothing to be pointed to with pride by Obama’s top aides on “Meet the Press,” or anywhere else. It’s a disgrace.

Let Rick Warren attend the inauguration, along with clergy from every faith. But, let him listen quietly while Bishop Desmond Tutu delivers an invocation message of inclusion and compassion in which all the world can believe.

Happy and Healthy!

Change We Can Believe In

By Steve Villano

This past year—from one World AIDS Day to the next (December 1, 2007, to December 1, 2008)—has been a time of transformative change, in the life of the country, Cable Positive’s, and my own.

The election of Barack Obama as President of the United States is an historic moment, heralding the promise of great change, challenge and hope for the future. It is a moment, like a handful of others in our lives, by which we measure where we were when it happened, and where we want to be to help it unfold. I felt the same way when JFK was elected President in 1960, and at 11 years old, began my journey toward a lifetime of service. I feel that same sense of youthful optimism today, only 49 years later.

It’s been a year packed with powerful, positive changes for the Cable industry and for Cable Positive. Gone are the days of the industry’s year long calendar of benefit dinners--replaced by greater focus and collaboration on the community-based and national awareness programs constituting Cable Positive’s true public service and value. Fortuitously, for the fight against HIV/AIDS, these changes coincided with the CDC’s conclusion that the AIDS epidemic in the US is far worse than previously believed—and that the life-saving role for education as the only vaccine against the disease has dramatically increased the importance of Cable Positive’s work—and the need for growing cable industry & public support.

And, from last December to this one, death--and the potential of a sweet, new birth-- have served as momentous mile-markers in the past 525,600 minutes of my own life. From my mother’s death one year ago, to the joyous news that my son will soon become a father, this has been a year unlike any other for me. Attention must be paid to such transformative events. Action must be taken.

Accordingly, after a nearly-nine year privilege of serving Cable Positive and working with an all-star array of cable industry leaders driven by a desire to do good, I’ve decided to seek to explore some mountains beyond those I’ve already climbed. “Change we can believe in,” is as true at Cable Positive, as it is for the rest of the country, and over the next several months I hope to take an active role in that positive transition of leadership between now and July 1, 2009.

As a passionate change advocate, I believe that the healthiest organizations—and individuals—are those that don’t fear change, but embrace it, as a way to achieve new and even better results. I am confident that the team we’ve built over the years at Cable Positive, headed by our talented Chief Operating Officer Thomas Henning and an excellent Executive Committee and Board of Directors, guided by Showtime’s gifted EVP, Ray Gutierrez, will continue to take the organization to bold, new heights, expand its programs and break exciting ground with all media platforms and audiences. In fact, with our Youth AIDS Media Institute funded by Motorola, and our public service programs of community-building launched by NBC-Universal in New Orleans in May, we are already well on our way.

This has not been an easy decision. I love my work with Cable Positive and what we’ve accomplished over the past nine years, on a tiny budget, and with a small, but mighty team. I enjoy making a difference in people’s lives, and building something—a program, a documentary, an organization—from the roughest of concepts into a powerful tool to make our world a little better place.

I don’t know what awaits, but this much I do know: I’m thankful to be alive today, to be a participant in a time of great change, and to energetically embrace tomorrow.

Thanksgiving, 2008: A lifetime of people & events deserving of thanks

By Steve Villano

This has been an amazingly historic year in the nation’s history, in Cable Positive’s life, and in my own. I cannot get through a single day without ticking off a “top ten” list of people and events for which I am grateful.

Inevitably, any list of “thanks” is an incomplete one, in a life as full and fulfilling as mine, where I am touched by the grace of good people every day. Here’s my, admittedly, abbreviated attempt:

• I’m thankful for Barack Obama, his tenacity, his even temperament, and for bringing this country back to its common senses, and injecting us all with a great sense of promise and possibility, especially during tough times;
• I’m thankful for the inspiring work done in the area of HIV/AIDS by Dr. Helene Gayle, President/CEO of CARES, whom Cable Positive honored in March, along with MTVN’s Bill Roedy and Insight’s Michael Willner, whose lives have also been bright lights to us;
• I’m thankful to Showtime’s Matt Blank, who I have on record saying that a Cable Positive POP Award is more important to him than an Emmy—although he’s done pretty well in that department as well;
• I’m thankful to Ann Carlsen, whose generosity jump-started Cable Positive’s “One-for-One” program, bringing much needed anti-retroviral drug assistance to children and families throughout sub-Saharan Africa;
• I’m thankful to John Evans his untiring efforts to find a cure for this disease, and his incredible support for me, for Cable Positive and his critically important work on the Boards of the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, the Institute for Human Virology, and the NCTA.
• I’m thankful for Cox’s leader-by-example Pat Esser for always showing up—despite his incredibly busy schedule-- at every Cable Positive Atlanta Chapter event, a practice he began well before he became President & CEO;
• I’m thankful for Dan Moloney’s passion for education, and how he translated that into a Motorola Foundation grant—the largest single grant in Cable Positive history—which created our Youth AIDS Media Institute, to teach teens how to educate their peers about HIV/AIDS;
• I’m thankful for the cable industry giants serving on Cable Positive’s Board of Directors, from past chairs Lela Cocoros, Dennis Mangers, Rob Stoddard, David Wicks and Bonnie Hathaway, to present chair Ray Gutierrez, and Cable Positive founder, Jeffrey Bernstein, and to Stuart Benson, Cable Positive’s treasurer, who has become a treasured friend;
• I’m thankful for Moe Berger, Joel Berger’s father, who passed away this year, and supported the work of Cable Positive after his death, as he had done for 13 years following the death of his son to AIDS-related illnesses;
• I’m thankful to NBC-U’s Bridget Baker and her incredible colleagues who did an extreme make-over of two HIV/AIDS facilities in New Orleans during the NCTA show;
• I’m thankful to Rainbow Media’s Josh Sapan, for donating his “discarded artwork” to Cable Positive to sell on E-bay, and making a gift of 35 pieces of artwork to the residents of Lazarus House in New Orleans, changing some lives in the process;
• I’m thankful to Rainbow’s Ellen Kroner, who, without a moment’s hesitation, made a gift of $500 to New Orleans’ Lazarus House, to purchase a camera for a resident who loved amateur photography, and lost everything he owned during Hurricane Katrina. Josh Sapan’s artwork and Ellen’s gift, ended the HIV positive’s man’s 3-year long depression, renewing his zest for life;
• I’m thankful for having a terrific team of people to work with at Cable Positive, day-by-day, committed to the cause of HIV/AIDS education and awareness, and of improving the lives of people ;
• I’m thankful for having seen my mother live to 92, battling Polio and paralysis throughout her lifetime, deeply understanding bias and stigma, and remaining relentlessly optimistic and hopeful in the face of great obstacles;
• And, I’m thankful for the gift of being unafraid to love profoundly, and for the people I love most—Carol, my partner in life for 37 years through all sorts of storms and sunshine, and my son Matt & his wife Nicole, who already have brought us much joy, and will bring us still more in the Spring of 2009, when we become grandparents, for the first time.

I am, above all, thankful to be alive, and participating in a time of great change, challenge, promise and hope for the future.

Another Wake Up Call

By Steve Villano

World AIDS Day is less than two weeks away – December 1, 2008 – I think it’s a great time to review where we stand in the fight against the disease and remind everyone that we can do something about these terrible truths:

- There’s still no cure, in fact, two important vaccine trials were abandoned in 2008.

- The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) were wrong about how many new HIV/AIDS infections are happening each year – by 40%!

- African Americans account for 55% of deaths due to AIDS.

- Hispanics account for 14% of the U.S. population yet account for over 20% of new HIV/AIDS cases.

- Women account for nearly 1/3 of all new HIV infections – most of those infected are through heterosexual contact.

- Teen girls, ages 13-19 represented 43% of aids cases among young people.

- World-wide young people represent HALF of all new HIV infections.

It’s also a fact that HIV/AIDS is 100% preventable; it’s just a matter of getting the word out! So for this World AIDS Day, if you’re too shy to talk to your friends about HIV/AIDS, tell them to turn on the TV where, thanks to the cable industry, they’ll see our PSAs and learn more on our Video-on-Demand (VOD) service, or tell them to visit our newly redesigned web site, cablepositive.org, where they can connect with other people in the fight to end AIDS.

We have work to do and we know it, do you?

Positive Change, Flowing Both Ways

By Thomas Henning

The essence of change this year--both for Cable Positive and for the American political process--has come from the ground up; from community activists to national leaders. The common link in this chain of change across the country and throughout our industry has been forged by whole new applications of technology, designed to make entire governments, as well as non-profit organizations, much more accessible to individual stakeholders.

Barck Obama's incredibly successful campaign for President pioneered use of the internet, not only for political fundraising--where small denominations of contributions amassed to a total of $750 million--but also established the use of websites and social networking sites as superb tools of community organization. It's a lesson that non-profits need to learn well, especially during tight economic times, when usual methods of raising funds for life-saving programs become more & more difficult.

Cable Positive has worked hard to keep pace with sweeping changes in technology, to be more response to the people who support us throughout the Cable industry, and to better serve people with HIV/AIDS in local communities across the country. Last week, at the CTAM Summit held in Boston, Cable Positive unveiled its new, more interactive website as part of a powerful new campaign focusing on Cable Positive as a "public service of the Cable industry," aimed at improving the lives of people in local communities wherever a cable system is located.

Last year, at the NCTA Convention in New Orleans, scores of volunteers from NBC-Universal, Time Warner Cable, SES Americom and other companies, donated huge chunks of their time to help improve the lives of people living with HIV/AIDS at AIDS residences in the Lower Ninth Ward. This year, MTV Networks provided a team of their talented staff to renovate and redesign part of Iris House in Harlem, NYC. And, as we prepare for the NCTA Convention slated for Washington, DC, in April, 2009, cable companies and networks are already lining up to do volunteer work in community-based AIDS organization's throughout the Nation's Capitol, in collaboration with Cable Positive.

Change has been reshaping the Cable industry over the past several years, and the internet has been growing into as powerful a communications tool as television. Combining the enormous resources of both and using them to deliver--and receive--urgent messages of HIV/AIDS awareness and education to millions of individuals in hundreds of communities, is the kind of positive change we need.

Dear President-Elect Obama,

Congratulations on leading us to put our “hands on the arc of history and bend it, once more, toward the hope of a better day.” Your election as President of the United States on November 4, 2008, was a magical moment many of us only dreamed was possible, as we continue to work hard on matters of great urgency, like conquering HIV/AIDS.

We believe deeply in the “new spirit of patriotism” you have summoned; of “service & responsibility, where each of us resolves to pitch in and word harder and look after not only ourselves, but each other.” That’s the spirit that drives us each day in the work we do.

We put our faith in your word, given 6 weeks ago to the United States Conference on AIDS, when you expressed your “commitment to developing a National AIDS Strategy to decrease new HIV infections and improve health outcomes for Americans living with HIV/AIDS.” We applauded then, as we do now, your call for a comprehensive approach, for “aggressive federal actions, including investments that are matched with State & Local initiatives. . .preventing the spread of HIV, getting people into treatment, and expanding access to testing and comprehensive education programs.”

Those goals are the essence of Cable Positive’s mission, as is the equally important one of overcoming the stigma that surrounds HIV/AIDS—a stigma, which you have said, “is too often tied to homophobia.” You boldly stood that stigma on its head, when you and Michelle took HIV tests on a trip to Kenya.

Now, we need you to break still more barriers. We need you to act as the passionate Editor-in-Chief of Poz Magazine Regan Hofman has urged you to act—to move swiftly to develop and implement a National AIDS Strategy, as HIV/AIDS rages out of control in many communities of color, which, if located in communities in Africa instead of America, would be eligible for PEPFAR funding to fight the disease.

Establishing America’s first-ever National AIDS Strategy need not have any fiscal implication in the initial phase of creating it, and making it as powerful a creed as “Yes, we can.” We want you to apply the same focus, intelligence and organizational follow-through on defeating HIV/AIDS, as you did on winning the White House, and earning, as you eloquently expressed, “the chance for us to make that change.”

We know that eradicating AIDS will not happen overnight. Many of us have been foot soldiers in this war against this disease for more than two decades. We agreed with you, when you summoned the inspiration of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., stating that “we may not get there in one year, or even one term.” But we, too, are hopeful that we will get there. Working with you, we are ready for the enormity of the task that lies ahead.

Sincerely,

Steve Villano

President/CEO, Cable Positive

P2P is The Way To Be

By Thomas Henning

Kids today need to know accurate facts about HIV/AIDS.

I read a story earlier this week about a suburban St. Louis, Missouri high school in which 50 students might have been exposed to HIV infection. The details are not yet known as to how the exposure might have occurred, or who the individual was who tipped of the county health department, but swift steps were taken by the school district to contain the damage.

According to AP/Google.com, the school district is consulting with national HIV/AIDS organizations in order to “minimize the fallout and prevent the infection – and misinformation – from spreading.” Students from the entire school, which encompasses several towns, are able to receive confidential testing at six stations in the gymnasium. And school superintendent has called two meetings between parents and ministers in the community to increase talks about responsible behavior; he also acknowledges that the students in grades four through 12 have had classes to discuss such behaviors, and their consequences including HIV/AIDS.

While I applaud the school district for not digressing into the 1990’s hysteria we’re all used to seeing in these types of situations, and calling his community into action, I think there’s some new methods of education for students that, after this incident, all schools should be looking into: Cable Positive’s own Youth AIDS Media Institute (YAMI).

It’s no secret kids talk to each other differently than in a classroom setting, think back to your high school days; remember when calculus sounded like a foreign language before that group study session?

Research suggests that personalized messaging, and messaging coming from a source that individuals deem to be like them, facing the same concerns and pressures, is more impactful and more likely to change ones behavior and attitude. I am of this school of thought and believe that kids teaching kids about issues that affect them tremendously like HIV/AIDS, is more impactful and lasting than hearing about it from an adult, in most cases many years their elder.

The goal of YAMI is to promote peer to peer HIV/AIDS education among today’s youth, by stressing the correct facts about HIV/AIDS and empowering kids to spread awareness messages using today’s multiplatform media devices like cell phones and the internet to get the job done.

A Hall of Fame for Cable Positive Advocates

By Steve Villano

“Cable Positive is in the house!” to paraphrase the Sportsmen Channel’s Mark Kang, the ever effusive and energetic supporter of the cable industry’s smart, service-oriented initiatives. And, Cable Positive was definitely “in the house” last week and this week—in Denver and New York—at two Hall of Fame celebrations, and a Denver Chapter “Broadway-style” benefit that raised tens of thousands of dollars for local community-based AIDS organizations throughout Colorado.

In 14 years of doing a cable industry musical satire entitled “Positively Cable,”—and raising over $1 million to fight AIDS—the industry’s Denver-based Cable Positive advocates deserve their own very special wing in the Cable Center’s Hall of Fame. Their work has defined both community-building and corporate team building, year after year.

But, that wasn’t the only place “Cable Positive was in the house.” At the Cable Center’s Hall of Fame celebration the following evening in downtown Denver’s new Convention Center, 5 of the 6 honorees had an involvement with Cable Positive. Insight’s Michael Willner, received Cable Positive’s Power Award for Corporate Leadership earlier this year. Scripps’ Susan Packard, served as a long-time member of Cable Positive’s Honorary Chairs, and was instrumental in establishing Scripps’ continual support of our fight against HIV/AIDS at both the local and national levels. George Bodenheimer’s teammates at ESPN, ABC/Disney have been among Cable Positive’s strongest advocates, airing our HIV/AIDS awareness PSAs during their valuable airtime. Bodenheimer’s colleague—Anne Sweeney—was honored by Cable Positive a decade ago, for her leadership in using the power of cable and television in fighting AIDS. Hearst’s Ray Joslin, guided his company’s early support of Cable Positive, and remains an organizational advocate. And Cable Labs’ Dick Green, and his colleague Chris Lammers, provided extensive pro-bono support to Cable Positive when we re-designed and re-launched our highly effective website at the beginning of this decade.

At the Broadcasting & Cable Hall of Fame Dinner held at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in NYC last night, Cable Positive’s place as an essential public affairs initiative of the industry was evident in every one of Cable’s honored leaders. Two of the honorees—Time Warner’s Glenn Britt and Showtime’s Matt Blank—had not only been awarded Cable Positive’s Joel A. Berger Corporate Leadership Award, but they’ve integrated working with Cable Positive and our programs at all levels of their companies, in communities across the country. One honoree—Rainbow Media’s Josh Sapan, Rainbow will be honored with a Cable Positive Power Award in 2009, at the National Show. And Fox News’ Roger Ailes—whose organization has been a generous supporter of Cable Positive initiatives over the past 5 years—was singled out for praise by Richard Gere, for providing almost half-a-million dollars in pro-bono satellite time in India, to air a public service spot on AIDS awareness, prepared by the Gere Foundation.

Leading the generous advocacy of B & C to donate a portion of the evening’s proceeds to Cable Positive, were long-time Cable Positive supporter and Joel A. Berger Award recipient Bill McGorry, and Cable Positive’s Board of Directors Member, Larry Dunn. All of this on the day when the estate of Joel’s father, Moe—a gentle man, proud of his son’s activism within the cable industry in the fight against AIDS—continued Joel Berger’s legacy of advocacy, with a considerate contribution to the cause.

Yes, Cable Positive is in the house, it’s part of the fabric of the industry and its enlightened leadership, and it is one of the most powerful and effective public service gifts the cable industry has given to the public, and to its own employees.

No Longer an Issue?

By Thomas Henning

I am all about my “stories.” I have a few of them and we all get together one night a week and, along with mistress DVR, spend some quality time together. It is a delicious escape, sitting there watching The Hills, Gossip Girls, or Lipstick Jungle and not thinking about the twelve thousand items on my to-do list. I will even watch the commercials, now and then, to see if there is anything interesting. There rarely is.

Why is that? I know that commercials are evolving. Dove teamed up with MTV and Alicia Keys to create a micro-series with fully realized episodic content shown during the commercial breaks of full-sized shows. I was watching The Hills the first time I saw it.

Since then I have seen others on LOGO, TNT, and elsewhere. They are interesting and I was excited about the idea of commercials telling stories in a longer format spot because it seemed like an effective hook to keep the audience engaged with your message.

I admit that I was excited because of the potential for cause-marketing initiatives. I spent more time looking for the longer format cause-related PSAs but I didn’t find any and I began to ask myself why? Other countries have done it. One of my favorites is from China.

How incredible would it be to have something like this, starring celebrities from sports, music, film, television, and beyond? I mean, why haven’t we done this? This commercial is two years old. It was aired on the subway, on television, and this is China we are talking about.

Look I am not saying it is perfect, but it featured some of China’s biggest film stars, including Andy Lau, which contained grade-school-level content in an engaging format that addressed a number of myths and misinformation. Easy to understand and fun to watch. Come on. The money and effort put into the piece clearly demonstrated to the consumer that the government was putting some effort into addressing the issue. Again, this is China we are talking about. Whatever your position, it marked progress. Are we showing that same progress?

Airtime is expensive and a seven minute spots would be costly. It would cost more to produce and the airtime value would be higher. I get it. That said, I still want to know why? Why are other countries doing this and we are not? Is AIDS really no longer an issue? With the recent announcement of infection rates being higher than previously reported…40% higher…are we still not paying attention?

I don’t know. It makes me sad, and then it makes me mad. There are companies that could pay for it. Pharma could pay for it. The piece could be a tool used by local communities all over the country. It could get us talking about it, again, and keep us talking about it. It could be shown in schools, on the web, in subways, and in-flight movies. I am just saying.

I spend some time, each week, with Blair, Serena, Wendy, Niko, and Lauren Conrad. It would be great to know that while I spend that time with them escaping from my day to day, I could walk away with some tools to make better, more informed choices for the next day. It would be great to know that those tools were made available during programs that didn’t air at 2am. It would be great to know that after 26 years, people still get this isn’t someone else’s problem. It would be great to hear people talking about it at the water cooler.

I don’t think a micro-series is the solution. I don’t think that an AIDS commercial in the form of a musical is the solution. I do think that it can be an innovative approach to finding solutions. Look, if Disney’s success with High School Musical shows us anything, it has shown us that there are new ways to reach younger audiences with great results. What are we waiting for?

Doctor Gallo’s Gift

By Steve Villano

This week’s decision by the Nobel Committee to snub Dr. Robert Gallo in handing out Nobel Prizes for Medicine to two other European AIDS researchers, who co-discovered the HIV virus along with Dr. Gallo, was nothing short of an insult to those of us involved in the fight against HIV/AIDS over the last several decades.

While Gallo was gracious about the slight, and had high praise for his long-time friend and colleague Dr. Luc Montagnier who received one of the awards, the Committee’s decision was not only unfair, but it also undermined the spirit of collaboration that many in the AIDS community know is essential to find a cure and to make progress.

I am not an unbiased observer here. I have known Dr. Gallo for several years, and have followed his work for several decades. More than four years ago, at the invitation of John D. Evans, a long-time supporter of Cable Positive and one of the founders of C-SPAN, Dr. Gallo and I shared a panel with Dr. Seth Berkeley, head of the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative before the Washington D.C. Cable Club, which was aired on C-SPAN. I toured the Institute of Human Virology which he founded in Baltimore, met with his Board, and with the dedicated staff who drive the good work of Institute.

Dr. Gallo’s gift, in addition to his dedication of his life and his tenacity toward finding first, the cause, then the cure for AIDS, is a unique ability to make complicated medical & scientific information understandable to the average citizen. Time and time again, when AIDS researchers retreated into the jungle of their jargon, it was Dr. Gallo who interpreted what was needed to members of Congress and the public. It was no accident that the President’s PEPFAR program awarded Gallo’s Institute of Human Virology $140 million to conduct its work at 108 sites in 36 countries. Dr. Gallo is a brilliant communicator and leader, and his Institute does superb, life-saving work.

I know Dr. Gallo, and he is not at all like the public perception of him portrayed in the 15-year old HBO film, “And the Band Played On.” In fact, I have communicated directly to the leadership of HBO that the film does a disservice to Dr. Gallo’s pioneering work, and that each time the film is replayed on college campuses or on cable, it compounds the unfairness to him. I have even recommended a new, updated documentary on the search for an AIDS vaccine, and Dr. Gallo’s crucial role—to this very day—in that noble pursuit. His passion, his persistence in the face of daunting odds, and his daily work dedicated to helping HIV positive people around the world, deserve the gratitude of each of us and the appreciation of a world made better by his presence.

More Will Make a Difference

By Thomas Henning

Perhaps my love affair with community makes me sound provincial. As my daddy would say, I could give a rat’s ass. I never knew what that meant but it always made me giggle even when delivered in lively but less than whimsical tones.

Here is my point. Urban sophistication is more than emulating the latest spread in Vogue, Men’s Vogue, Elle Décor, or Field & Stream. Sophistication, at least in my book, is knowing more and doing better than what is merely expected of you.

When I was growing up, my house was about 5 miles out of town. Every day, I would drive by this broken down house that was still lived in by a family of less than established means. The house was a bit of an eyesore for those in town that considered themselves established. They would sarcastically refer to it as “the compound.”

When my brother and I first moved into town, it was all we heard. Townspeople were almost apologetic to us for having to pass it on our route into town. My brothers got caught up in the elitist hysteria and, once while we were driving by, threw an empty soda can in their front yard. In the middle of the road, I stopped the car and forced them to pick up the can from their yard. They were angry at me for causing a fuss but we had a long conversation about why we didn’t handle ourselves with such entitled disregard that helped to shape each of moving forward.

Don’t let me fool you. I was not a child with an angelic nature. However, even then I understood that fortune is cyclical and how you handle the good fortune will influence how the bad fortune handles you.

Years later, when my brother Sam died, the gentleman, Rick, who lived in that broken down home walked the five miles into town to pay his respects to my brother during his wake. I will never forget that. I offered to drive him home, after the service, and he shared his memories of my brother with me. It was a voyeuristic but profoundly accurate perspective of who my brother was.

He didn’t walk the five miles because we picked up the can. I don’t think anyone was even home that day. He came because of the legacy that my brother, at only 17 years of age, left behind.

To me, that is community. A legacy of character made of as many layers as there are people in that community. People are more because they have more in them to give and are selfless enough to give it.

Take this Saturday. The New York Chapter of Cable Positive is getting together to help Iris House, a community based AIDS organization that provides social services to HIV positive women and their families living in Manhattan. MTV & BET Network employees, along with New York chapter member and Cable Positive staff are giving up a Saturday to help repaint a common space at the agency used by clients and staff for meetings, exercise classes, support groups, and other activities.

If you’d like to help, Iris House is located at 2348 Adam Clayton Jr. Boulevard, New York, NY 10030. We’ll be there Saturday, October 4^th from noon to 5pm. Please contact Dana Levitt @ 212.459.1547 or dana@cablepositive.org for more information.

It isn’t much but it’s more and that “more” will make a difference. I don’t think the size of that difference matters. It is the fact that a selfless difference will be made to help those in need of some help.

That is how community, and its legacy, builds. One day a person reaches out their hand and asks how they can help; sits down beside a person and lends an ear; walks by and shares a much needed smile. Little by little, that momentum builds and fortune smiles.

Bigger than the Financial Crisis

By Steve Villano

Cable Positive went to Capitol Hill this week to deal with a crisis of monumental proportions with a growing impact in the United States and around the world.

No, not the financial crisis, which brought waves of lobbyists, politicians, and media representatives to Washington all week-long. While public officials and financiers were focused on saving people’s homes, 401 K plans, bank savings and jobs, Cable Positive came to Congress to save people’s lives.

While The Treasury Department and Bush Administration officials lobbied members of Congress hard for a $700 billion bailout for Wall Street, Cable Positive, a few elected officials, AIDS activists, and Cable industry leaders from Motorola, Time Warner Cable, Discovery, CTAM & TV One, gathered to share information and ideas on the crisis wiping out our children and our communities of color in the US and globally—HIV/AIDS.

Sponsored by Cable Positive and Congresswoman Diane E. Watson (D-CA) who heads the Congressional Entertainment Industries Caucus, a conference on “Youth, AIDS & Media: Multi-Platform Advocacy in a New Era of Prevention,” put the spotlight on the crucial role television, the internet and cell phones can have in educating our young people about HIV/AIDS, particularly since 8-18 year olds spend one-third of each day, engaged with some form of media.

“Young people are watching and sharing more content on their computers and mobile devices and actively engaging their peers through them, than ever before,” said Dan Brenner, long-time Cable Positive Board Member and SVP, Law & Regulatory Policy at NCTA, who was the conference’s keynoter. Brenner underscored the enormous pro-bono and financial contributions of the Cable industry in the fight against HIV/AIDS, and singled out Motorola for special recognition of a $200,000 grant from the Motorola Foundation which enabled Cable Positive to create our Youth AIDS Media Institute (YAMI).

The Congressional conference was the first of many that Cable Positive will hold around the country to bring more attention and resources to how the HIV/AIDS crisis is crippling entire communities, and what the entertainment industry is doing about it—particularly the cable telecommunications industry through the work of Cable Positive.

“I think it’s our continued responsibility as part of this entertainment community to continue to fight against HIV/AIDS,” said Congresswoman Watson. The cable industry and Cable Positive couldn’t agree with her more.