The idea was based on a powerful insight: the human desire to love and be loved is something that becomes almost impossible to achieve when you have HIV. The stigma and shame that surrounds HIV is so devastating that people don’t even feel worthy of the very treatments that can help them live.

To launch DESCOVY, we had to help them see that who they are on the inside—their strength, their passion, their spirit—is beautiful. Because when you love what’s inside, you can live a healthy life with HIV.

Through simple, beautiful portraits, we revealed the inner qualities that make us unique and showed that true beauty lives inside each and every one of us. More importantly, we changed the conversation around HIV to health, helping people realize that having HIV doesn’t mean you lose your self-worth. And that the true power to choose health comes from within.

DESCOVY forms the backbone of a new family of HIV treatments. GENOVYA and ODEFSEY launched in the early spring of 2016, teasing the full campaign with the “Love What’s Inside” tagline and signature, black-and-white portraits. The full DESCOVY campaign, which tied all three products together under one umbrella campaign, launched in the fall of 2016.

Because the people we were trying to reach had yet to see themselves as being deserving of treatment, and were not actively looking for treatment-related information, the campaign found its audience in places they’d already integrated into in their daily lives (in HIV lifestyle magazines, on the websites they visit most) and on a new website experience designed for mobile-first.

Altogether, the Love What’s Inside campaign told a seamless story across multiple channels, inspiring people to break through the stigma of HIV and seek treatments that can help them live longer, healthier lives.

The results exceeded our best expectations. GENVOYA, the first treatment to launch, was the most successful launch in HIV history. And today the DESCOVY HIV treatments are the #1 prescribed treatments in the U.S.

Source: Ipsos Healthcare US Virology Monitor, Fieldwork Dates: Q4 2016, Sample Size: 204 doctors reporting on 4,084 patients, Methodology: All data collected online