Bleachman (1988)

AIDS Foundation to launch major AIDS education and prevention campaign for intravenous drug users

SAN FRANCISCO, CA, MARCH 17, 1988 -- On Wednesday, March 23rd at 11:00 a.m. at Boeddeker Neighborhood Park on Eddy St. between Jones and Taylor in San Francisco, the San Francisco AIDS Foundation will launch the BLEACHMAN CAMPAIGN -- a major media and community outreach education effort designed to influence San Francisco's 12,000 to 18,000 intravenous drug users (IVDUs) to always clean their needles with bleach to protect themselves against the AIDS virus.

This latest Foundation campaign takes a unique and innovative education approach to reach IVDUs about bleach. The focus is BLEACHMAN -- a superhero character who will deliver a simple "CLEAN IT WITH BLEACH" message to IVDUs through billboards, MUNI interior buscards, brochures, newspaper ads, BLEACHMAN posters, BLEACHMAN brochures, street outreach activities and through special live BLEACHMAN appearances.

"When we tested the Bleachman concept and the bleach message in focus groups of IV drug users, it went over extremely well," says Les Pappas, coordinator of IVDU AIDS education activities for the San Francisco AIDS Foundation. "Our goal is to give Bleachman a strong identity among IV drugs users and heavily promote cleaning needles with bleach," adds Pappas.

To help kick-off the BLEACHMAN campaign, the San Francisco AIDS Foundation will be joined by representatives and speakers from a variety of AIDS and substance abuse prevention and treatment programs in San Francisco. In addition, a special feature of the kick-off event will be the live appearance of BLEACHMAN and his official welcoming to San Francisco.

"We are inviting all community groups involved in the fight against AIDS to participate in the BLEACHMAN campaign," says Dr. Timothy Wolfred, Executive Director of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation. "Halting the spread of the AIDS virus among IV drug users will take a broad-based community-wide effort."

Needle sharing is a major means of transmitting the AIDS virus among IVDUs. According to studies on intravenous drug users in San Francisco, upwards of 15% of The City's IVDU population are infected with the AIDS virus. Moreover, public health officials estimate that the number of IVDU infections will continue to grow by 3% a year -- or roughly 300 people annually.

Public officials are also concerned that the continued spread of the AIDS virus among IVDUs is a potential bridge for wider infection in San Francisco's heterosexual population.