CABLE POSITIVE JOINS FORCES WITH LATINO COMMISSION ON AIDS
TO SUPPORT NATIONAL LATINO AIDS AWARENESS DAY - OCTOBER 15
New PSA Campaign Featuring Extreme Makeover: Home Edition?s Eduardo Xol,
actor Efren Ramirez ? Pedro from Napoleon Dynamite and Latina Soap Star Gabriela Spanic
NEW YORK, NY -
October 6, 2005
Cable Positive, the cable and telecommunications industry’s AIDS action
organization, has teamed up with the Latino Commission on AIDS, a national and
regional nonprofit membership organization dedicated to improving and expanding
health promotion, research, treatment and other services to the Latino community
through organizing, education, model program development, capacity building and
training, to support the efforts surrounding National Latino AIDS Awareness Day
(NLAAD) on Saturday, October 15, 2005. In over 250 cities around the country,
Latinos will join together to mark the third annual NLAAD, as part of Hispanic
Heritage Month. In cities from Seattle, Washington to Miami and from New
York City to Los Angeles local organizations will sponsor activities to draw
local and national attention to the fact that Latinos represent 20% of the persons
living with AIDS but only 14% of the U.S. population.
Cable Positive has produced and distributed a reel of new
television ads as part of their award-winning JOIN THE FIGHT campaign in English
and Spanish languages. The spots feature celebrity activists Eduardo
Xol of ABC’s Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, actor Efren
Ramirez who starred as Pedro in Napoleon Dynamite and Latina
soap star Gabriela Spanic. The spots focus on the power of an
individual’s mind as essential tool needed to spread knowledge
of the importance of knowing the facts about HIV and AIDS and of getting
tested. The PSAs also seek to eliminate the stigma and taboos
of discussing HIV among Latinos. The PSAs are in rotation on English
and Spanish cable networks geared towards a Latino audience.
Those interested in airing the PSAs should contact Thomas Dima, Vice
President, Communications, Marketing and Special Projects at thomas@cablepositive.org or
212.459.1605.
ABOUT NLAAD
The National Latino AIDS Awareness Day (NLAAD) was created to cast the
spotlight of the AIDS epidemic on the faces behind the statistics. But
stating that Latinos are greatly affected by HIV and AIDS is not enough. We
need to mobilize our communities and bring our stories to the policy
makers to show them that the decisions they make affect families. October
15 is the day when we ask localities to mobilize Latino youth, immigrants
and migrants, women, the Latino LGBT community, men and women who
are intravenous drug users, current and former inmates and the extended
families of all these groups that have carried the burden of this
disease in secrecy and shame or fought hard to remain HIV negative. October
15 was a day to recognize the heroism at a local level of countless
organizations, family members, and Latinos living with this virus
to disrupt the indifference, shatter the stigmas and bring awareness
out into the open.
ABOUT CABLE POSITIVE
Cable Positive is a national non-profit organization that was founded in February 1992 by three concerned cable executives with the mission of organizing cable’s resources in the fight against AIDS. Cable Positive will mobilize the talents, resources, access and influence of the cable and telecommunications industry to raise HIV/AIDS awareness; support HIV/AIDS education, prevention and care; and strive to end stigma by creating a more compassionate climate for people whose lives have been affected by HIV or AIDS. Cable Positive has grown to include supporters from every major cable network, multiple system operator, cable system, hardware manufacturer, trade association, media publication, and affiliated industry vendors and suppliers. Since 1992, Cable Positive has raised more than $14.9 million in the fight against AIDS. For more information about Cable Positive, call 212-459-1502 or log on to www.cablepositive.org.
