In 1990, GAPABahia (GAPA-BA), an NGO, added its voice to the choir of AIDS organizations protesting the frightening government campaign, aware of the need for alternative messages in the media. They believed that the official messages failed to reach the general public mainly because:

Mass media campaigns that aim to raise community awareness by frightening people have the opposite effect, i.e., they drive people away from information.

The frequent association between AIDS and death carried a depressing tone as well as a subliminal message of guilt for those already infected.

Starting from this point, GAPA-BA created a new discourse on AIDS, becoming the first NGO to produce nationwide multimedia campaigns at no or low cost. They focus on the social responsibility of fighting the disease while emphasizing the value of life and individual sexual freedom. Their first multimedia campaign in 1993 was carried out at no extra cost with locally and nationally known charismatic singers. This campaign (repeated in 1994) had short messages encouraging individual responsibility in condom use.

Their second campaign in 1995 incorporated elements from the local culture by affirming the AfroBahian heritage expressed in popular music and dance. "Don't hide from pleasure, avoid AIDS" was the campaign run during Carnival; it showed a condom being inflated in the shape of an erect penis. This campaign had the appropriate lightheartedness for the occasion while simultaneously sending the public a message about prevention.

In 1996, GAPA-BA ran a campaign called "Don't rely on luck: use a condom". It included five newspaper ads, radio spots, TV ads, 25,000 posters, billboards, and ads on public buses. It features five HIV-infected or -affected people who relate their experiences on living with AIDS and send a prevention message to the public. This was the first time that people living with HIV/AIDS (PHAs) took an educational role before the general public, telling their stories and demanding a new social role: that of potential educators. This act of going before the public displaced the stereotype of PHAs as dangerous and frightening.

GAPABA's success as a regular producer of media messages shows that it is possible to produce high-quality, attractive campaigns that carry a serious and educational approach, without being superficial. The campaigns are sponsored by donors or are inexpensive to produce because community-based organizations have sensitized other social actors, who respond through the community to the epidemic. GAPA-BA's campaigns are no longer the only non-governmental ones. Carnival bands, hospitals and drug industries have started producing their own campaigns.