CDC’s Digital Motion Comic to Raise HIV Awareness

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has contracted with Terminus Media to release a new HIV prevention campaign. We aren’t talking about your standard public service announcement or a few posters, but a digital motion comic that can be watched on an iPad or Xbox 360. The comic will start out as a 66-page hard-copy comic and then be translated into three motion comics, each about seven minutes long. Motion comics feature traditional comic book images with music, sound effects and voice-overs.

This concept is interesting and the idea of a motion comic itself is incredibly cool. Just thinking about it sends me straight back to Saturday morning Spider-Man cartoons as a kid. This is a great way to adapt old-fashioned comics to the modern age. But, even better than the idea of a motion comic itself, is the fact that the CDC is creating an educational tool. Check the trailer for Spider-Woman: Agent Of S.W.O.R.D. to see what motion comics are like.

Think about it: It’s easy to tune out your health teacher as he drones on and on about the dangers of STDs in third period health class. However, you naturally pay a bit more attention to a video—especially when it’s a seven-minute motion comic and not a fifty-minute documentary. And sure, maybe the CDC’s motion comic isn’t as much a must-see as this week’s episode of Modern Family, but you have to give the CDC some props for formatting their campaign in a way that will be interesting to as many teens as possible.

If the CDC were releasing a report on new HIV statistics, would I read it? Probably not. But I can spare seven minutes to check out a video (or even three), if only to see how the CDC’s plan pans out.