A hush falls over the crowd as the last group of spectators makes its way onto the giant soccer field. Five thousand people have traveled many dusty miles from neighboring towns and villages to attend this major event. Suddenly an explosion of sound and light fills the night air and the handsome face of a popular movie star appears on a giant screen. It is showtime in rural Bangladesh. And as a deep voice begins to extol the virtues of birth spacing in a country of 116 million people, the audience settles in for a full evening of education and entertainment.

Mass communication is an integral part of successful social marketing programs. Yet in many countries the majority of the population lives in rural areas not serviced by electricity or mass media outlets. As a result, Population Services International (PSI) uses alternative means of getting vital messages on family planning, AIDS prevention and child survival to rural audiences. The use of Mobile Film Units (MFUs)—now being transformed into video vans—is one of the alternatives which has worked successfully in Bangladesh and India, and will soon be integrated into PSI's Africa programs.

In Bangladesh, the Social Marketing Company (SMC) began using Mobile Film Units on a small scale in the early 1980's. Today, it has a fleet of 17 MFUs, with two units based in each of the SMC's eight regional offices. Each MFU is equipped with a generator, two 16-mm projectors (shortly to be replaced by video projectors), a giant portable screen, a P.A. system, and a supply of SMC products and promotional items. Each van has a crew of two, a projectionist/promoter and an assistant projectionist/driver.

A typical MFU film show lasts approximately 2 ½ hours. During the break, the promoter makes a pitch while handing out sample products such as oral contraceptive pills, oral rehydration salts (ORS), or condoms. The film show includes:

• Educational documentaries—on family planning, child survival, AIDS prevention, often in the form of a soap opera, or puppet show using human actors;
• Product advertising—PSI's brand and other advertisers' products;
• Participatory Video Unit—testimonials by local leaders;
• Entertainment—a feature film, music video clips, dramas
• News and sports reels

Participatory Video Unit
A new component is being added to PSI's Mobile Video Units—the Participatory Video unit—which will enhance local participation in this mass communication effort. The show's promoter will travel to a rural community during the day and videotape local leaders talking about the need for family planning, and in the process get an endorsement for the project's products. That night, the interviews will be projected as part of the evening's event, lending local credibility and participation to the operation.

The impact of the Mobile Film Units in Bangladesh is far-reaching; audience turnout among the entertainment-starved rural population is enormous, averaging between 3,500 to 4,000 viewers per show. On some occasions, as many as 10,000 have been known to turn out. With the vans out six nights a week, over the course of a 10-month period, between seven and 10 million viewers will have been exposed to project messages. A recent evaluation of the effectiveness of the MFU's has shown that repeated exposure to the MFU film shows results in increased brand awareness, brand preference and knowledge of contraceptives and oral rehydration therapy (ORT).

The evaluation of the Mobile Van program has enabled the SMC to sell a portion of time to advertisers interested in reaching rural audiences, thus helping defray operating costs. In Bangladesh, the project is generating $50,000 a year, and demand is so high that some advertisers have been turned down.

The Mobile Video Unit project will also have a training component as technicians and promoters improve their skills as projectionists, video camera operators, journalists, and sales promoters.

In India, PSI uses its video vans as much for sales coverage in villages and small towns as for the dissemination of its promotional messages. PSI/India's strategy is to focus on the weekly markets, or "haats," that form the heart of rural commerce, with complementary attention to villages and small towns en route to the "haats." On a typical day, PSI/India operates four to six video vans in three different states. During a recent month, the average van crew:

• sold 38,000 condoms
• covered 75 villages/small towns
• made 440 sales calls, of which 150 were productive
• opened 13 new outlets
• held 75 A/V shows seen by 7,000 viewers

In a number of African countries, PSI is retrofitting existing sales vans with Mobile Video Units for the dual purpose of social marketing and mass communication.

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