A New Jersey safe-sex campaign aims to prevent HIV and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs) among women through a series of 20-minute soap operas that they can watch on their cell phones.

Rachel Jones, PhD, an assistant professor at Rutgers College of Nursing in Newark, New Jersey, filmed 12 episodes of the soap opera with a grant from Healthcare Foundation of New Jersey. Jones also received $2 million from the National Institutes of Health to test the campaign’s effectiveness. The study will measure the risk-reduction behavior of women who watch the video against a control group that will receive text messages urging condom use, but see no video.

The videos feature “nitty-gritty stories of risk and risk reduction” that women, especially women of color, can identify with, Jones said. In New Jersey, about one-third of people living with HIV/AIDS are African-American or Hispanic women.