The Three Amigos HIV/AIDS Prevention Programme

They look a little like Smurfs or some of SpongeBob Squarepants’ undersea buddies, but the brightly colored cartoon characters Shaft, Stretch and Dick are actually condoms. In the past year, they became international stars thanks to The Three Amigos, a boldly inventive series of public-service announcements that uses hip language and humor to set up pointed reminders that condoms are tremendously important in reducing the spread of HIV/AIDS. At a casino, for example, the Amigos play roulette and lose their shirts. The kicker: “Don’t gamble with your life. Use a condom.” The producers made the amusing spots all the more appealing to TV stations and networks internationally by offering them in a variety of running times—as short as 15 seconds, as long as a minute—and in 41 different languages, from Amharic to Zulu. For its deceptively lighthearted and extremely effective attack on a deadly world epidemic, a Peabody goes to The Three Amigos HIV/AIDS Prevention Programme.