As HIV prevention science continued to advance, Gilead saw an opportunity to rethink how prevention education reaches communities disproportionately affected by HIV and historically underserved by healthcare communication, including Black and Latinx men and cisgender women. Traditional pharmaceutical communications don't always reflect how these audiences actually talk about sex, identity, relationships and self-care. Gilead saw an opportunity to change that showing up in the trusted spaces where those conversations were already happening honestly and without judgment. That meant partnering with Hearst, the home of 30+ reputable, trusted brands including Cosmopolitan, Esquire, Men's Health, Women's Health, to extend Gilead's unbranded Healthysexual platform across trusted editorial, social and live experiences.
The goal was to build genuine awareness and education around PrEP through Healthysexual's bright, bold and playful approach to sexual health, meeting priority communities with information that felt authentic to the spaces they already trusted. Rather than rely on traditional pharmaceutical tactics, Gilead wanted to hand its story to real people, editorial storytellers, and a live stage, meeting people through unconventional channels that pharma rarely uses.
Success meant making HIV prevention more relevant and approachable for a younger generation that may not have HIV prevention top of mind, showing communities most affected by HIV how far prevention science has come, and prompting honest, informed conversations with healthcare providers.
As the partnership evolved, it also created an opportunity to extend into branded education around YEZTUGO® following FDA approval.
The partnership centered on Gilead's unbranded Healthysexual platform, with content driving to Healthysexual.com designed to open conversations, build awareness and provide impactful PrEP education in trusted editorial environments. Sheryl Lee Ralph shared what three decades of HIV advocacy has taught her on Oprah Daily. Esquire and Men's Health published personal stories on identity and connection, syndicated across both titles to widen the reach and meet a younger generation who might not think about HIV at all.
As part of this unbranded effort, Cosmopolitan built something Hearst had never done before: a custom influencer hub, "Having Sex?!! But Do You PrEP?", that gave medical influencers, intimacy writers, and people actually living with or affected by HIV a platform to speak candidly about prevention, on their own terms. Casting that talent took real care. Hearst's team worked within HIPAA, FTC, and GDPR guidelines so people living with HIV could share their stories safely and prioritized authentic perspective over follower count.
The unbranded Healthysexual conversation moved off the page entirely at the Men's Health Lab. Gilead sponsored a live panel with actor and Healthysexual campaign ambassador, Lukas Gage and Dr. Ofole Mgbako, an infectious disease specialist at NYU Langone. Men's Health Executive Editor Kengo Tsutsumi moderated a candid, unscripted discussion on PrEP, stigma, and self-care in front of a room full of editors, influencers, and other cultural tastemakers of Hearst and the brand.
Following YEZTUGO®'s FDA approval, the partnership expanded to include a branded extension. While the broader content program remains unbranded, co-branded articles will introduce YEZTUGO® within Hearst's trusted editorial environment.
Executing an unbranded HIV prevention program at this scale required careful coordination. Keeping six or more editorial teams aligned on tone mattered just as much as navigating the regulatory considerations inherent in HIV prevention communications. Every piece needed to read like something Cosmopolitan or Men's Health would have published on its own, while remaining true to the Healthysexual platform and delivering credible, consistent prevention education.
What sets this work apart is simple. Hearst didn't sell Gilead ad space. Hearst's sales, marketing, on-camera talent, and live events team built a true 360 experience that brought Healthysexual to life across editorial, social, influencer and live experiences, meeting people exactly where they already were, at a scale few pharma partnerships have ever attempted.
Before a single asset went live, Hearst's audience data had already validated the approach. Hearst's portfolio brands over-indexed against Gilead's target audiences by up to 2x among LGBTQ+ and women readers, and nearly 2x among people who had been diagnosed with or tested for HIV, across a combined footprint approaching 100 million unique visitors.
Performance followed. Healthysexual's high-impact Mega Hero units drove three times the click-through rate of standard IAB placements, and the custom Storyteller unit landed a 0.23% click-through rate against a 0.09% benchmark, more than double the industry standard.
Readers stayed, too. Sheryl Lee Ralph's Oprah Daily feature earned 74,748 page views, with readers spending an average of three minutes on the page, surpassing the 1:54 benchmark. The Men's Health's prevention guide performed even stronger with 137,677 page views and five minutes of average time spent on page, nearly three times the benchmark. Dark TikTok activations drove engagement rates between 0.83% and 0.86%, up to eight times the platform's 0.10% benchmark.
But success went beyond the numbers. This investment moved a pharma brand through real cultural moments, a celebrity-hosted panel, a first-of-its-kind influencer hub, and a six-part oral history, reaching Black men, Latinx communities, women, and LGBTQ+ audiences in spaces built for them. Gilead and Hearst proved there's a different way to do this work, one that gave people real education, human conversation, and for many, the confidence to finally ask a doctor a question they'd been afraid to ask: Is PrEP right for me?
