Late‑night texts can come with a lot of decisions, especially around dating and sexual health. Up To Date is a new campaign from Gilead Sciences built with Black creatives that uses humor to make HIV prevention part of everyday conversations and to make testing feel like a normal part of dating. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, Black women accounted for half of all new HIV diagnoses among women in 2022, despite being only 13 percent of the female population. We asked Nicole Byer, the comedian at the center of the campaign, what made her want to lend her voice to a message aimed directly at Black women.
Balancing Safe and Fun
The video centers on a Black woman in her bedroom, getting ready for a date, while her inner voices, played by Nicole Byer, hype her up and steer her toward safer choices. Nicole says that was the point.
Sexual health is important. If you’re grown enough to have sex, you’re grown enough to ask someone their status and to know how to protect yourself. You get to make choices that are good for you and your health.
Nicole joined the campaign because the tone felt right. “They approached it in a way that was funny but smart and actually informative.”
Humor Helps It Stick
Up To Date uses humor, late‑night language, and dating scenarios that feel like they came right out of group chats. Nicole says comedy is one of the most effective ways to get people thinking about topics they might otherwise avoid.
Comedy sticks with you. You laugh, and then later you’re like, wait, maybe that is important. Humor is a good way to tackle hard issues because you get to laugh, but you also get to think.
She believes humor reaches people who would tune out anything too clinical. “We like laughing. If something’s funny, you can still understand the message behind it. If you come at people clinically, they have to dissect all the terms. Comedy reaches more people than something straightforward and kind of boring.”
The Inner Voices
Nicole plays two versions of herself in the video. One voice is hyped and ready for the night. The other is careful and thinking ahead.
“One character is excited to go out and do it. The other is more careful. The message is that you can be excited, you can live your life, but you do have to think before you actually do it.”
Devon Walker, a comedian who stars alongside Nicole in the campaign, plays the love interest’s inner voice, giving the spot a balanced perspective. Nicole says that was intentional.
It’s good to have the male perspective and the female perspective. Hopefully people can see themselves in it and see themselves making a good choice so they can make a good choice in their own life.
No Room for Stigma
Nicole says stigma is part of what makes this work necessary. “People think you did something wrong. But you’re not wrong. Things happen. Campaigns like this keep the conversation going, and that’s important. You need to know how to protect yourself if that’s something you’re trying to avoid.”
She didn’t shy away from the statistic at the center of the campaign either.
That statistic just sucks. It’s really great that this campaign is talking to Black women because in the medical field we’re often left out. Knowledge is power. The more you know, the smarter choices you can make.
Meeting Women Where They Are
Up To Date is running on Peacock during The Real Housewives of Atlanta, as well as Urban One, BET, Tubi, and Roku.
These are spaces where Black women already talk about dating, relationships, and sex without shame. Dating conversations rarely start in a doctor’s office. They usually start between friends, in the check-ins, the honest advice, and the “girl, here’s what happened” moments that shape what someone does next. Up To Date steps into those spaces and makes sexual health part of the conversations women already trust.
Owning Your Choices
The campaign is about ridding Black women of fear and trying to normalize something that should have always been normal. Asking questions, protecting yourself, and owning your choices.
Nicole puts it plainly. “Sex is fun, and your health is in your hands. You can make choices that keep you safe and choices that let you have fun. If you want to be with someone, do it. Just make sure you protect yourself first. When you’re safe before the fun, the fun is safe too. Go out, do it, just be smart about it.”
With intention behind its design, Up To Date brings sexual health conversations directly to Black women. The hope is that it sparks genuine conversations, the kind that move from one woman to another and, even better, the kind that lead to preventive action.
Resources:
Up To Date (a campaign from Gilead Sciences)
The Impact of HIV on Women in the United States | KFF
Images courtesy of Justin Bettman