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PSI and its focus on doing what works and measuring its health impact was the focus of David Wessel's Capital column in The Wall Street Journal. The article says that PSI "seems to be a nonprofit that market-loving, results-oriented, compassionate people would love," that it "markets brands with Madison Avenue-style sizzle" and "tries, harder than many other nonprofits, to measure its effectiveness at improving health." "PSI asks one question," Wessel writes. "What works?" "Like the U.S. government, PSI subscribes to the A-B-C approach to fighting AIDS: Abstinence — Be Faithful — Condoms," according to the Journal. "In Zambia, its posters shout: 'Abstinence Ili Che!' or 'Abstinence is cool!' In Malawi, its billboards show a teenage girl shunning the entreaties of three boys with the headline: 'Sex Can Wait, but My Future Cannot.'" But the article reports that some conservatives are upset that PSI received slightly less than half its $250 million annual funding in 2004 from the U.S. budget because of what they consider "suggestive, over-sexualized" ads for condoms Reports the Journal: "Sex sells. Gillette uses it to sell razors. Coca-Cola uses it to sell soda. It seems somewhere between silly and prudish to suggest that ads for condoms avoid the implication that they will be used for their intended purpose." The article points out that PSI usually clears its health messages with local health authorities and are sensitive to local sensibilities. In Afghanistan, PSI sells condoms to married couples for birth spacing, and the instructions for use have no drawings. The article ends with PSI President Richard Frank's "simple, but powerful, question: What works? It prizes results above prejudices… Experts debate what led to Uganda's success in fighting AIDS: Was it that young people waited longer? That adults had fewer partners? Or that condoms were more widely used? PSI pragmatically says all of the above. It promotes all three. If it works, do it." |
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