Skip to Main Content
HBS Home
  • About
  • Academic Programs
  • Alumni
  • Faculty & Research
  • Baker Library
  • Giving
  • Harvard Business Review
  • Initiatives
  • News
  • Recruit
  • Map / Directions
Faculty & Research
  • Faculty
  • Research
  • Featured Topics
  • Academic Units
  • …→
  • Harvard Business School→
  • Faculty & Research→
Publications
Publications
  • August 2008 (Revised September 2009)
  • Case
  • HBS Case Collection

Sex, Drugs, and Rock 'n Roll: The MTV Approach to Tackling HIV/AIDS

By: Tarun Khanna, Sonali R. Bloom and David E. Bloom
  • Format:Print
  • | Pages:28
ShareBar

Abstract

This case explores the role that MTV, with its heavy diet of music and general youth-oriented media content, plays in spreading public-service messaging to contain the scourge of HIV/AIDS worldwide. There is a focus especially on its efforts in several emerging markets, particularly the parts of Africa that have a heavy disease incidence. MTV has developed a DNA of public service announcements that it claims are of central relevance to its high-risk customer base. How core is this to the strategy of a for-profit firm like MTV? What role can a multinational play in helping develop the health care "soft" infrastructure in such emerging markets?

Keywords

For-Profit Firms; Developing Countries and Economies; Multinational Firms and Management; Health Care and Treatment; Emerging Markets; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Corporate Strategy; Health Industry; Africa

Citation

Khanna, Tarun, Sonali R. Bloom, and David E. Bloom. "Sex, Drugs, and Rock 'n Roll: The MTV Approach to Tackling HIV/AIDS." Harvard Business School Case 709-429, August 2008. (Revised September 2009.)
  • Educators
  • Purchase

About The Author

Tarun Khanna

Strategy
→More Publications

More from the Authors

    • January 2023
    • Management Science

    Firm-Induced Migration Paths and Strategic Human-Capital Outcomes

    By: Prithwiraj (Raj) Choudhury, Tarun Khanna and Victoria Sevcenko
    • November–December 2022
    • Harvard Business Review

    Your Company Needs a Space Strategy. Now.

    By: Matthew Weinzierl, Prithwiraj (Raj) Choudhury, Tarun Khanna, Alan MacCormack and Brendan Rosseau
    • November 2022 (Revised January 2023)
    • Faculty Research

    AES Corp: A Global Power Transformation

    By: Tarun Khanna, Allison M. Ciechanover and Matt Higgins
More from the Authors
  • Firm-Induced Migration Paths and Strategic Human-Capital Outcomes By: Prithwiraj (Raj) Choudhury, Tarun Khanna and Victoria Sevcenko
  • Your Company Needs a Space Strategy. Now. By: Matthew Weinzierl, Prithwiraj (Raj) Choudhury, Tarun Khanna, Alan MacCormack and Brendan Rosseau
  • AES Corp: A Global Power Transformation By: Tarun Khanna, Allison M. Ciechanover and Matt Higgins
ǁ
Campus Map
Harvard Business School
Soldiers Field
Boston, MA 02163
→Map & Directions
→More Contact Information
  • Make a Gift
  • Site Map
  • Jobs
  • Harvard University
  • Trademarks
  • Policies
  • Accessibility
  • Digital Accessibility
Copyright © President & Fellows of Harvard College