"So We PrEP” - Gilead | Clapboard Ad Archive
Gilead’s So We PrEP campaign, devised in partnership with the Black-owned Atlanta agency Majority, brings cultural fluency and creative rigor to the pharmaceutical category by enlisting Tionne T-Boz Watkins for a reimagining of a defining 90s R&B classic—refocused as a public health anthem centering Black joy, sexual empowerment, and HIV prevention. This project is the headline act of Gilead’s Care for the Culture movement, foregrounding honest and destigmatizing dialogue about sexual health in Black communities where the chasm between HIV diagnosis rates and prevention uptake remains a persistent crisis: Black Americans account for 42 percent of new HIV diagnoses nationwide, but just 14 percent of PrEP users, while Black women—representing only 13 percent of the female population—suffer through half of new HIV diagnoses among American women. Eschewing the didactic tone that often defines healthcare communications, Majority leverages music’s connective currency to weave educational urgency directly into creative nostalgia, with T-Boz’s legacy as an advocate for safe sex lending the project authentic resonance. The creative approach sits squarely within Clapboard’s FORMAT#12—Parody or Borrowed Format—using the structure and emotional heft of a beloved pop culture artifact to reach viewers within Black culture and beyond, reframing PrEP not as a medical afterthought but as a gesture of self-care and communal celebration. The film’s vibrant narrative and familiar sonic touchpoints work in concert with a purpose-built call to action, driving audiences toward further resources via Carefortheculture.com and reinforcing the brand’s 35-year leadership in HIV medicine—a positioning that sets Gilead apart amid intense category rivalry from ViiV Healthcare, Merck, Janssen, GSK, and Bristol-Myers Squibb. With north of 1.3 million views registered, the campaign has achieved significant visibility and engagement, further aided by the cultural credibility of its agency partnership and talent choice. In a market where health equity gaps persist and legacy approaches risk ineffectiveness, So We PrEP delivers disruption and inclusivity in equal measure, embedding vital information within genre conventions that speak directly to its primary audience. The campaign earns 77/100 in Clapboard’s global creative archive. For the industry, this work exemplifies the potential of culturally intelligent creative to move a critical health conversation entirely out of the clinical shadows and into the mainstream of Black culture, where it can actually change behavior.
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