Most unsexy condom ad ever?

We're seen some great condom ads lately. This is not one of them.

Created by Ogilvy & Mather, Japan, for e-tailer Condomania, this campaign features shrink-wrapped naked couples in very awkward-looking embraces:

Perhaps the humour is just foreign to me. But they look like dead, packaged meat. Ewww.

Via Ads Of The World

"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.

Bad Valentine's Marketing #4: what, what?

This Australian postcard reads, "This Valentine's, wherever you want to shoot your cupid's arrow, show your true love. This Valentine's Gift of Love is FREE. But if you love truely, [sic] any donation will wing its way to Kirketon Road Centre."

Their rationale, as it appears on Ads of The World:

On a day where the birds and the bees and all things amorous are exploding around us, we thought it the most appropriate time to help raise awareness, and more importantly donations, for the Darlinghurst Kirketon Road Centre through a community based health message this Valentine’s. In an engaging and quirky way to promote love and safety around tomorrow we have distributed thousands of condoms in 70’s inspired graphic packaging through numerous bars and clubs in in the 2010/2011 postcode with the message; This Valentines Day, wherever you want to shoot your cupid’s arrow, remember “Love is...”

The cause is important. The '70s illustration idea is kind of cute. The graphic indication on anal sex is explicit. But the typo, in the DM world, is unforgivable.

Click here if you didn't "get" the headline.

Kids for making more kids (within marriage)

Jezebel shared the news about a pro-abstinence/anti-birth-control group called 1flesh. Styling itself as a grassroots organization, it uses youth-friendly graphics and messaging to celebrate the joys of procreative marital sex:

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At the same time, it preaches some potentially misleading arguments about the efficacy of contraceptives in preventing unplanned pregnancy and disease:

What is going on here? It's almost like they're trying to run a white, christian, breeding program. Which is a pretty smart strategy from a political point of view. Get those horny kids to keep their pants on until marriage, then turn the young woman's reproductive parts into a baby factory — a clown car, if you will — of Duggar proportions.

"But what about overpopulation?", you might ask.

The whole “Save the World: Don’t Have Kids” idea is, in retrospect, just plain silly. The worldwide fertility rate fell throughout the same period... Even if we were to pretend that the world was in a desperate state of looming overpopulation, artificial contraception on its own wouldn’t be of much use. It does not reduce the rate of unintended pregnancies. We’ve been duped into demanding a bad solution to a non-existent problem. It’s time to move on.

Move on. Get married. Have babies.

But a full reading of the site does show that it promotes one method of family planning: the Creighton Model Fertiltycare™ System. It's an initiative of the Pope Paul VI Institute for the Study of Human Reproduction. And it's basically a modern version of the rhythm method (with cervical mucus observation instead of guesswork).

According to Wikipedia:

The effectiveness of the CrMS, as of most forms of birth control, can be assessed two ways. Perfect use or method effectiveness rates only include people who follow all observational rules, correctly identify the fertile phase, and refrain from unprotected intercourse on days identified as fertile. Actual use, or typical use effectiveness rates are of all women intending to avoid pregnancy by using CrMS, including those who fail to meet the "perfect use" criteria. 

The Pope Paul VI Institute reports a perfect-use effectiveness rate of 99.5% in the first year.In clinical studies of the CrMS conducted at the Pope Paul VI Institute, researchers excluded most pregnancies from the typical-use rate calculation, on the grounds that they believed the affected couples had used the method to deliberately attempt pregnancy. The Institute reports a typical-use effectiveness of 96.8% in the first year. Most studies of similar systems do not exclude such pregnancies from the typical-use failure rate.

Remember how 1flesh said that condoms don't work?

The condom’s use-effectiveness rate is 85%.  This means that, under real-world conditions, a woman whose sexual partners use condoms for every act of sexual intercourse has a 15% chance of becoming pregnant in a year. And while oral contraceptives are more effective, studies have shown that after three years of use, the failure rates of oral contraceptives was 4.7% for 24-day regimen pills and 6.7% for 21-day regimen pills. The FDA’s conclusion is that the use-effectiveness of oral contraceptives is 95%. A 2011 study, Contraceptive failure in the United States, found the Pill’s actual failure rate to be 9%. 

Though the numbers shift in various studies, in every case, natural methods of family planning — specifically the Creighton Model FertilityCare System — are more effective at preventing unintended pregnancies, with a use-effectiveness of 96.8-98%. The idea that the widespread use of artificial contraception will help end the stressful incidence of unintended pregnancy — while hopeful — has been debunked. The answer is not pill or a rubber. It’s having a true understanding of a woman’s body and cooperating with it. 

This is from the source they cited at About.comhttp://contraception.about.com/od/overthecounterchoices/p/OTC.htm:

Condom (Male)Typical use: 85% effectivePerfect use: 98% effectiveOf every 100 women whose partners use condoms, 15 will become pregnant (with typical use) and 2 will become pregnant with perfect use

The PillTypical use: 92% effectivePerfect use: 99.7% effectiveOf every 100 women who use The Pill, 8 will become pregnant (with typical use) within the first year and less than one will become pregnant with perfect use

Waitaminute. Did they just compare perfect use of their "natural" birth control with "typical use" of condoms and the pill? Yes, yes they did.

When you get to the bottom of it, 1flesh's "grassroots" movement is anything but. It's a highly organized campaign of reproductive misinformation designed to recruit a new generation of social conservative, anti-reproductive choice, voters, using generational mouthpieces like Patheos blogger Marc Barnes to make being quiverfull more palatable to Millennials. 

Penis angels?

Every once in a while, advertising actually catches me by surprise. I can honestly say I did not expect anything like this. It's weird as hell, but I will remember it.

By Loducca, São Paulo, Brazil

Via Ads of The World

Safer sex billboard versus fretful mother

AdFreak has a story about how a resident of Van Nuys, California, successfully lobbied to have a safer sex billboard in her community taken down from a public thoroughfare. 

The ad in question?

Via KTLA

According to local news outlet KTLA:

"Eve Ragsdale worried about having to explain the billboard to her 6-year-old triplets. 

... 

Ragsdale had contended that her children, who read now and ask questions about everything, were not developmentally ready to have the AIDS-condom relationship explained to them. 

'It's just an inappropriate image for all of the children in the neighborhood,' she said."

I am raising a young child in an urban environment, too. He's also a kid who is curious about everything, but he rarely asks awkward questions about the condoms we see on the sidewalk, or the streetwalkers we drive past. It's not that he doesn't notice. He just doesn't care much about those things at his age.

But as a 7-year-old obsessed with nature, he knows what sex is. (He surprised an after school caregiver last year by pointing out two "mating" squirrels.) If he asked me straight out what a condom was for, I'd tell him in an age-appropriate manner. Even though young ones don't yet have those feelings, it won't be long. My belief is that it's better to normalize condom use before the occasion... arises?

But, of course, other parents may have different views. My major concern here is a very important public health massage being stifled by an individual's feeling that it is not appropriate for the public media. And the media company, who decided to take the knee-jerk approach, gave in without so much as a second thought.

According to the LA Daily News:

"Van Wagner Outdoor Vice Chairman Bill Crabtree told the Daily News that the billboard would be changed on Wednesday or Thursday. 

'I told my operations manager to move it,' Crabtree said. 'We listened to (Ragsdale), we don't necessarily agree with her, but if it's offensive to her, the last thing we want to do is offend anyone.' 

'We don't put up (ads for) strip clubs, we don't put up anything that is lewd," Crabtree explained. "But the AIDS thing is educational, quite frankly. I know people might look at some of the designs askew, but they're trying to get their point across.' 

'We don't put up ads for strip clubs, we don't put up anything that is lewd,' Crabtree said."

 Ironically, as AdFreak's David Kiefaber points out, Van Nuys is literally The Porn Capital of The World. And a recent LA law requires all adult performers to wear condoms in their onscreen couplings.

But hey, Ms. Ragsdale. Heaven forbid you should have to explain that billboard to your children.

If I were the AHF, I would not take this lying down.

Condom brand boards the "slut pride" bandwagon

It's a great idea, really. From the incident that led to Slutwalk's creation to Rush Limbaugh's recent verbal incontinence, there has been a strong will to reclaim the "slut" label foe a generation of sex-positive feminists.

Sir Richard's Condom Company knew a good meme when they saw one. This is a prophylactic producer with a cause. For every condom sold in the first world, they donate one to a free clinic in developing countries, engaging local artists and activists to brand them in culturally relevant ways.

Now, Sir Richard's has wrapped itself in the slut pride movement, launching the campaign site "Sluts Unite":

Sure, it's a money making ploy as well. But I like it, myself. Cynical or sincere, I think the only way to improve sexual health and dignity for everyone is to engage in a more natural and unashamed sex-positive dialogue.

For Sir Richard's, the front line is social media. So they have created a wide variety of avatars for people to use in the fight to make "slut" less of a dirty word:

Sure, there are people who object to this. I get it. But change should be a little unsettling.

Tip via AdRants.

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.

Durex fortune teller says "cover your little feller"

Ads of The World just posted this nice ambient ad infiltration by Durex in Taiwan:



An interesting case of manipulating cultural predispositions. According to the case study, Taiwanese youth don't want to talk about condoms or sex, but are obsessed with having their fortunes told. So the agency (Ogilvy) built an old-school fortune booth that distributed condoms and warnings about unsafe sex.

Clever. The ending looks pretty staged, but still clever.

Nudists scandalized by La Senza bikinis

At least, I think that's what's going on here:



The old "nobody who's a nudist is someone you'd want to see nude" stereotype is alive and well in this video, as is some sort of mythical epic battle between young hotness and mature sag.  (Although I like to see the attack on the lifeguard as some sort of brainy classical reference to the Greek Maenads — not!)

They're going to tear him apart in Dionysian ecstasy!

Anyway, this indulgent little piece of T&A cinema comes with a horde of "DVD extra" videos that give you more behind-the-scenes insight than you ever needed:













Via Illegal Advertising

Part ad, part film, all-Italian

Fellow Osocio blogger Tatjana Vukic shared this interesting piece of commercial cinema via Facebook.

It's a pretty steamy six-and-a-half minute romp starring Monica Bellucci, who moves effortlessly from saucy situation to saucy situation while showing off a number of underthings by Intimisssimi:



The copy at the opening says, "In the heart of very woman beats many hearts. This film is dedicated to every single one of them."

It's actually an ideal approach to branding a line of products with so much attachment to strong emotion and self-image. Like all fashion advertising, it plunges into a realm of fantasy rather than presenting the everyday reality of its target market, imbuing the brand with a mystery and allure.

What, you expected me to complain about the implicit sexism, or something? Naw, not this time.

I've lived in Italy, and sexuality and beauty in the media are perceived differently there. Advertising, especially fashion advertising, is understood to be artistic and surreal — not a template for living or a standard to live up to. (If the opposite were the case, they'd all look like they had just stepped out of the "I Hurt I am in fashion" photoblog.) This short-film-length ad is artistic enough to be watched as either.

This image really wants to be a condom ad

This isn't an ad for contraceptives, as far as I know.  But it probably should be.

Found on This is Photobomb

Care to suggest a headline? Do it in the comments below.

The war on loose women

Social marketing has been with us a long time. It just went by other names, like "propaganda".

Buzz Feed just posted a collection of Second World War posters warning soldiers about the dangers of venereal disease from prostitutes and "procurable women".

Note how the first batch basically vilify the women as a secret enemy, while the last two put more onus of responsibility on male self-control and honour:

Ninety-eight percent?

If you sleep with a hussy, you're boning HITLER.

The pulp fiction cover style is actually kind of awesome.

This one has a Disney feel. She looks like the mirror in Snow White.

French girls: bags of trouble.

Wow. She really gets around.

Must... not... give in,,,

Friends don't let friends swive drunk.

There are more examples, including homefront messages, here.

NHS invites you to choose your own (sexual) adventure

Osocio shared the latest "Choose Your Own YouTube Adventure" video. This one's  from Britain's National Health Service, and what impresses me is how a government campaign can be so bold and realistic — especially when it comes to frank depictions of casual sex from a participant's POV:



I'll warn you in advance that you'll need a YouTube account to access any of the naughty bits, because they've been flagged as "adult". No nudity, but if you're at work you may want headphones...