Exposed!
Developing the HIV and sexual health sector
The Exposed! series of magazines began early in the life of CHAPS to address problems connected to leaflets. Coverage surveys showed low numbers of men had seen or read CHAPS leaflets due to their distribution mechanism, leaflet racks. These could hold only small amounts of leaflets and weren’t usually in prominent areas of venues; in addition many gay venues had no racks.
Given the popularity of the free gay press it was decided to switch from the leaflet to the magazine format. These can be left in large numbers in venues alongside the gay press. CHAPS also pays for copies to be inserted inside gay press titles. This has greatly increased levels of men’s recognition and engagement with CHAPS small printed media.
Aiming to appeal to younger men and those with less education, Exposed! makes heavy use of imagery to illustrate its messages and is light on text. The magazine’s photostories are a popular way of putting across messages.
Competitions act as learning tool and when men return the entry forms it is possible to monitor where they found the magazine, and, if they give an email address, they join a database which receives monthly email bulletins about HIV and sexual health promotion activities.
Each issue of Exposed! appears as part of a CHAPS campaign whose theme is addressed throughout the magazine. A campaign ad appears on its back cover so boosting the number of men seeing it.