Vangardist Magazine released a special edition of their publication to fight against the stigma surrounding HIV. The editors wanted to make a direct statement to their thousands of readers- one which would create an emotional response in a heartbeat. So, what better way to connect people to the issue than by printing their whole edition with the cause of the stigma itself – HIV-positive blood.

By further putting the issue into a sealed wrapper, people picking up the magazine were confronted with an additional personal dilemma - break the seal and break the stigma, or ignore the issue.

Early April 2015 we took blood of 3 HIV-positive donors and mixed it with the ink to print the special edition of Vangardist Magazine. 3000 copies were printed and shipped to subscribers and KOL. Our main message #HIVheroes became one of the most trending topics on social media.

• One of the most trending topics on the net

• Received broad coverage on platforms like buzzfeed, mashable, iflscience.com

• Over 5,2m shares in the first ten days of the campaign

• More than 20mins of live overage on news channels such as CBS-News, BBC, AlJazeera, etc

• Reaching out to an estimated audience of 32million

• Over 300 publications covered the topic in 28 countries across the globe.

• All coverage added up to an earned media value of USD 1,98m

• On the day of entry, the edition was on its way to selling out, raising potentially EUR 150K of donations.