"Bollywood" Durex ad tries to make condoms cool in India #DoTheRex

Advertising safer sex products in India can be difficult, because as India.com points out, "When it comes to ‘sex‘, it’s still a taboo."

In an attempt to reach young people despite their elders' prudery. Durex hired popular actor Ranveer Singh to do a completely over-the-top rap number about how good it feels to use the product:




The YouTube page quotes Mr. Singh:  "I believe intimacy is never just physical, but emotional too. I'd like very much for the youth of the nation to talk more openly about safe sex by normalizing the conversation."

The video may not be helping the status of women, by surrounding the man with a legion of barely-dressed female dancers, but it gets attention and it's memorable.

The most violent condom ads you will see today

The stork is executed in brutal human fashion.

The concept may be clever, and the illustration divine, but these ads don't exactly put me in the mood for love. Plus, how many young people today even know the old-school stork myth?

Ads by Ogilvy, Honduras. Via Ads of The World.

When the end of the world comes, "Durex" has it covered

These ads appeared on a blog by Daniel James Evans, who says he's an advertising creative working at Buzzman Paris. They are apparently not "real" (approved, paid and published) ads, but they're still kind of fun:

The jokes just write themselves with a condom brand. But I still have to ask myself, if the end of the world really were coming, why would you care about the possibility of unplanned pregnancy or catching a sexually-transmitted infection?

Tip (heh heh heh) via Adrants

Durex France proves that you can still make a great condom ad

You can see the gag coming (sorry) from a mile off, but it doesn't hurt this ad's effectiveness.



When condoms advertise disease or pregnancy prevention, or even consequence-free sex, they can be creatively intriguing but haven't told us anything special about the specific brand. They're indistinguishable from safer sex PSAs.

This one, directed by Charlotte Rabate for Durex France,  is different. It feels like an overpromise if taken literally. But by making us think about durability while enjoying childish hijinks, it gets the message of protection through strength across... flawlessly.

Tip via Creative Criminals

Durex China celebrates Obama with racist dick joke

"The difference between Obama and Romney is..."

Twitter is a-twitter with this Durex ad, apparently shared last night by Durex China. (Even though I can't find a Twitter feed for them.) It did, however, appear on beijingcream.com last month, where it can be tracked back to Durex China's Sina Weibo account.

"Weibo" means "microblog" and Sina Weibo is the most popular platform, with about 368 million registered users.

So the ad is apparently real. But it probably wasn't intended to be seen outside China. However, when it started being Tweeted this morning, it lost its provenance as it went viral. (I spotted it on a few friends' Facebook feeds.)

Nonetheless, can we get over obsessing about black men's penises now?

Fly safe with Durex

Adrants posted this funny stunt by Durex Poland. It's really quite simple, and a rather intuitive brand association with"safety instructions":



The only problem I have with it is that I don't believe the "guerrilla" aspect of it. I simply can't imagine getting that many camera angles on the reaction shots without very obviously making a video. It appears very staged to me.

Funny, though.

Durex ads: Faked for your pleasure?

Update: According to Copyranter, these ads are apparently "real" abominations created by Buzzman.fr. Not that it makes them any less vile. (Although it's odd that they're not on Buzzman's Facebook Page.)

These fake "edgy" ads are getting really tiresome.



This one, from Illegal Advertising, uses a cheap sight gag with batter to make a naughty bukkake reference. (If you don't know what that is, don't look it up. You've been warned.)

It's not so much the making of these spec pieces that bugs me so much as they'll be passed around as real.

But hey — if you're into this kind of humour, here are two more from the same YouTube Channel:





(Post picked up by Copyranter on Buzzfeed)

The Durex ad that I didn't need to see on World AIDS Day

Today is World AIDS Day. And while many great attempts have been made by social marketers to get people to practice safer sex, the sexual transmission of HIV continues at a worrying pace.

The biggest barrier is that fact that nobody really likes condom sex better than bare sex. "Shower in a raincoat," etc. It will always be seen as a sensory compromise, even if it can improve length of performance or allow a more relaxed response by offering peace of mind.

And even the condom manufacturers know it:

This ad was featured today in Photoshop Disasters, because of the badly altered hand, but I found the concept itself gave me pause.

So, apparently, did @sidgestion, who Tweeted another version of the ad with the comment, "you can leave her pleasantly puzzled - do I need to get an abortion?"

Indeed, the ad seems wrong on so many levels. That a woman would muse about whether her partner used a condom or not brings up all kinds of questions about sexual health, consent, and plain old respect in the bedroom. It implies that she really would rather you forwent the Jimmy cap and jumped in au naturel, no matter what she has said to the contrary. In some ways, this is as bad as "no means yes".

Yeah, yeah, I know. It's just a stupid ad. But in a world where some men would rather have their foreskins cut off than wear a condom, I don't think it's helping the cause any.

Digital Love, for safer sex

If you have headphones and a private screen, or are otherwise in a liberated work or home environment, try out this new interactive safe sex experience by Buzzman, Paris:

Digital Love (new window)

The video allows you to choose a partner by sex and geographical population group (with non-Arab Africa conspicuously absent) and then sets you up for hot cybering.

This incredible online experience is brought to you by Digital Love Corporation, who are on a mission to give people everywhere an opportunity to experience safer orgasms.

Yeah, of course it's an ad. For Durex. Although watching attractive people get all hot and bothered on a computer screen will probably lead to a much lower tech (and even safer) version of "digital love" — if you know what I mean.

An oldie but still a good one