Health New Zealand Tackles HIV Stigma With A Giant Phone From The '80s

Health New Zealand's latest campaign, ‘The 80s Calling’, tackles one of the biggest barriers people living with HIV today face: stigma.

Developed by VML and brought to life by Good Oil, the campaign uses a giant 80s-style mobile phone as a metaphor for outdated thinking about the condition, pointing out that while medical science has moved on, many people’s ideas have not.

​Kim Pick, executive creative director at VML New Zealand, told LBB the campaign began with noticing a disconnect between the reality and public opinion.

"The starting point was a stark, sobering reality: for many New Zealanders living with HIV, the social stigma is actually worse than the virus itself. Thanks to modern medicine, HIV is a highly manageable condition and people are able to lead long and healthy lives. When a person is on effective treatment, the virus becomes undetectable, meaning there is zero risk of transmitting it sexually.

“Yet, our research showed that while science had leaped forward, public perception was frozen in time. Roughly three-quarters of New Zealanders still hold onto HIV-related stigma, fueled by fear-based myths. The core insight was that the mindset of our target audience, especially Gen X and Baby Boomers aged 40–69, was stuck in the 1980s, shaped by fear-based messaging they may have experienced during the AIDS crisis.”

Finding the right creative approach meant addressing a serious issue without alienating the audience the campaign needed to reach. Good Oil director, Connor Pritchard, said the production team's greatest challenge was “making sure the humour never got in the way of the message.”

“The joke is never about HIV or about Sarah. It's about outdated thinking. Sarah is simply enjoying a party with her friends and family. The only thing that needs updating is Joe's thinking.”

Kim said striking the balance between humour and a serious message “was key,” and that a “heavy-handed, finger-pointing lecture would only cause people to tune out or get defensive.”

“We didn’t want to shame anyone for holding outdated beliefs; we simply wanted to hold up a mirror in a way that made them smile, think, and self-correct.

“The secret was using nostalgia as a soft entry point. By wrapping the message in the light-hearted absurdity of 80s relics like the brick-sized cell phones, we created an inviting, non-threatening tone. It was fun, but it never crossed into parody or mocked the severity of the subject.”

Once the team landed on the idea of outdated thinking literally giving the central character, Joe, a phone call, Connor said “the phone became the hero of the whole film.”

“We spent a lot of time discussing its size. We looked at the iconic Dom Joly phone, but felt that might be a little too ridiculous. A normal brick phone wasn't ridiculous enough. So we ended up somewhere in the middle, big enough to get a laugh, but still believable enough that Joe could casually carry it around the party.

“I also looked at a lot of classic commercial comedy where something completely absurd is treated as totally normal. Joe never questions the phone. He just answers it and gets on with his day."

Getting on with his day took some choreographing, with Connor laughing "One of my favourite parts was figuring out what Joe does while he's on the phone.”

“Whenever you're on a long call, you never just stand there. You wander around, grab food, fiddle with things and get distracted by random objects. We wanted Joe to feel exactly like that.

“We explored all sorts of little moments. Like practising a golf swing, weaving through groups of people, grabbing a sandwich, straightening things that didn't need straightening. The more normal his behaviour felt, the funnier the phone became.”

Kim said the biggest hurdle was navigating “the sheer complexity” of the topic, asking “How do you distil decades of medical progress, lived trauma, and deep-seated social conditioning into a brief, punchy ad campaign?”

“We had to design a creative vehicle that was highly relatable and memorable, but scientifically accurate and deeply respectful. To do that, we embarked on an extensive co-design process. We worked closely with health professionals to ensure the medical copy was flawless, while simultaneously working with people living with HIV to understand their lived experiences of discrimination. On the flip side, we also had to understand the psychology of those holding the stigma.

“Because of those diverse inputs, the creative journey had plenty of twists and turns. We constantly refined the language, ensuring we were explaining modern treatment in a way that was easy to digest, without diluting the seriousness of the campaign's ultimate goal."