All Articles Tagged "durex"
Durex Shares Condoms for World AIDS Day Awareness
A group at the Coppin State University in Baltimore attempt to make the world’s largest human AIDS ribbon during World AIDS Day 2011. AP Photo/Patrick Semansk
World AIDS Day is December 1 and Durex Condoms launched a social media campaign encouraging users to spread awareness and donate condoms.
The #1share1condom campaign started on November 26 and will run through December 1. For every tweet sharing a statistic about HIV/AIDS with the #1share1condom hashtag, or for every share of Durex’s photos or videos from its Facebook page, the company will donate one condom to global and local charities that work to combat HIV-transmission.
“Durex is committed to improving knowledge and understanding of HIV and to raise awareness of how to prevent HIV transmission,” said Kevin Harshaw, marketing director of personal care at Reckitt Benckiser, the parent company of Durex, in a statement about the campaign. “We’ve supported the fight against HIV over the years, mainly through local projects. This year, we have decided to use our global market presence to create an initiative that will get the world talking and sharing.”
Just this week, we got two disturbing pieces of news about the fight against AIDS. First, we got word that young people between the ages of 13 and 24 account for a full quarter of the new HIV cases. And, according to the Herald-Tribune black males having unprotected sex with other men are the most at risk.
“Of the 12,200 new HIV cases recorded in 2011, 57.4 percent were among blacks, 19.6 percent among Hispanics/Latinos, and 19.5 percent among whites. Almost 75 percent of the cases were attributed to male-to-male sexual contact,” the paper says.
Moreover, the Centers for Disease Control found that only one-third of young people (between the ages of 17 and 24) are being tested. Only 13 percent of high school students were tested in 2011. “The CDC estimates about 1.1 million people are living with HIV in the United States and that about 50,000 people get the virus each year. One in four infections occur among those ages 13 to 24 — or about 1,000 per month,” Politico says.
Durex hopes to donate 2.5 million condoms, representing the 2.5 million people who were infected with HIV last year. According to the 1share1condom website, as of Thursday morning, more than 912,000 condoms have been donated.
Risque or Just Plain Offensive? ‘Target Market News’ Criticizes ‘Ad Age’ Magazine for Story About Racy Obama Ad
The First Lady at the DNC Convention in September. Image: The Yomiuri Shimbun via AP Images
The president of Target Market News, which focuses on all things related to African Americans, the consumer market, and the marketing/advertising business, has sent an email to “colleagues” criticizing Ad Age‘s decision to run a story about a Durex condom ad in China. Madame Noire was among those on the list that received the email.
In the ad, which appeared on the Chinese social network Sina Weibo, both First Lady Michelle Obama and Ann Romney are seen during their respective convention speeches, captured in the midst of a hand gesture. The caption, written in Chinese characters, says, “The difference between Obama and Romney is…” The implication is meant to be racy and edgy, but comes off very tacky and, to some, highly offensive. Response to the story on Facebook is varied, with many people calling out the ad and the magazine for “poor taste” and others laughing or dismissing it. You can see it and the Ad Age story here.
In the mass email, signed by Target Market News’ president Ken Smikle, he takes Ad Age to task for not adding context to the story and digging for more information from Durex. (He also comments on the Facebook post.)
“I personally found the decision by Ad Age to write about a blog in China and to place this story on its Web site and Facebook page to smack of racism, and to be, at the very least, inappropriate,” Smikle wrote. “There is a long history of marketing trades ignoring the works and accomplishments of Black marketing professionals. This, however, is a new low for insensitivity by a respected business publication.”
In an email, Ad Age‘s editor Abbey Klaassen told us she hadn’t heard directly from Target Market News, but she did see the email.
“Was the ad controversial and risqué? Yes. But we’re a news organization — coverage doesn’t indicate an endorsement and we can’t ignore something because it’s risqué or controversial. In this case, the ad was controversial before we covered it,” she wrote to us.
Moreover, she defended the magazine’s coverage of issues concerning diversity:
“I think if you look at our track record, you’ll find that we’re committed to reporting on and advocating for diversity and cultural sensitivity in advertising. Take, for example, our Big Tent blog, where contributors regularly weigh in on just such matters. And recently we sent an editor to the ANA Multicultural Marketing Conference in Florida a few weeks ago to cover excellence in multicultural marketing. I assure you, that commitment will continue.
“If Ad Age wanted to write about it, it isn’t just humor,” Smikle told us during a phone call. “This is a global world. Anything online can be seen anywhere in the world.”
He also faults the magazine for not digging more deeply into the motivation for creating the ad.
“They needed to ask questions,” he said. “Was Durex concerned about causing offense?” Moreover, there needed to be an internal conversation about how to handle the story.
“That kind of insensitivity hurts everyone,” Smikle added. “That ad person who looks at this could be well on their way to creating something just as offensive.”
According to Smikle, the bigger issue is the decline of black media and the need to recognize the African-American market as the vital US demographic that they are. The National Newspaper Publishers Association and Nielsen reported in September that $2.1 billion in advertising was spent with black media. The general mass media spend was $120 billion. Black buying power is predicted to reach $1.1 trillion in 2015.
“[C]ompanies that don’t advertise using Black media risk having African-Americans perceive them as being dismissive of issues that matter to Black consumers,” NNPA chairman Cloves Campbell told Politic365 a couple of months ago.
Generally, there is a need for money to come back to black media in order for it to survive and thrive, Smikle says. But specifically in terms of advertising and marketing, he says African Americans get “short shrift.”
“There’s big coverage of what’s going on in the Hispanic market, but next to none on the African-American marketing arena,” he told us, expressing a belief that the perceived language barrier is the most important factor in diversity marketing and media coverage.
“But it’s culture,” he said, emphasizing the great impact that black culture has in this country. “Hispanic [marketing] doesn’t get the coverage it deserves. But black and African American [marketing] get none at all.”
The Ad Age article is only about 65 words, simply stating that the ad exists and that it’s “risque.” Obviously, the news hook was the presidential election and, perhaps, Durex believed that by placing the ad on a Chinese social network, it wouldn’t get too much attention overseas.
“The role of media has to become an honest broker on all the the information available,” Smikle said. “But in this fast-paced world, a lot of things are getting passed off that shouldn’t see the light of day.”
Do you find the ad — or the article — offensive?
Does Superthin Condom Ad Send the Wrong Message?
One thing to keep in mind when looking at this ad is that it wasn’t made for an American audience.
The Durex condom advertisement runs in India and promotes a birth control/STD barrier that is so thin it could leave a woman questioning whether a condom was used or not—as shown.
In the cultural subtext of India, sex is not discussed nearly as openly as it is here in the Western world, so the idea is that a man and woman probably wouldn’t talk to each other about protection but if the woman happened to see the condom wrapper, box, etc. she’d be pleasantly surprised to learn he used one, despite the fact that it wasn’t detectible.
Durex group manager for marketing and branding Vishal Vyas told Audience Matters, explained, “There is still a lack of education as sex is a taboo topic in India. People are opening up and talking about it as family planning, and sexually transmitted diseases have become major issues. We are and will always aim to spread the message of safe and responsible sex.”
Still a few sites—albeit American—have knocked the ad, saying pregnancy and STDs are not pleasant surprises any woman wants to receive and that there’s nothing cute about not knowing whether you’ve put yourself at risk for any of the above.
At the very least, the ad is clever in marketing the ultra-thinness of it’s product, but in a culture where people aren’t talking about something that they should in order to protect their sexual and reproductive health, I don’t think think giving them more reasons not to talk about it is the best route. But at the end of the day, sex education isn’t Durex’s job, they want to sell a product that gives people a feeling of security without the feeling of latex, and that’s what this does.
Do you think the ad sends the wrong message? Could it ever work in the United States?
Brande Victorian is a blogger and culture writer in New York City. Follower her on Twitter at @be_vic.
More on Madame Noire!
Risky Behavior: 6/10 Americans Didn’t Use Protection First Time They Had Sex
No wonder STD rates in the United States are out of control—people are starting out the gate raw.
Results of Durex’s annual Sexual Wellbeing global survey found that 6 out of 10 Americans didn’t use protection when they lost their virginity. That fact alone is bad, but when you compare it to other countries like Mexico and Colombia who had lower rates of unprotected sex at 49% and 47%, this looks really bad. Of the 60% who didn’t practice safe sex their first time, only half (49%) were confident their sexual partner was free of STIs.
One out of five of all those in a relationship admit they are unsure of their partner’s experience—I’m not sure if that also means they are unsure of their partner’s status, but I hope not. Only about 24% of the women who had admitted to having unprotected sex said it was a mistake and they regretted it. I think the rest just got lucky (twice).
Sounds like Durex may need to up their advertising. The data from the 29,000 respondents (taken across 36 different countries) doesn’t bid to too well for their market penetration—or America’s sexual health.
What do you think about these stats? Are you surprised by how many people don’t use protection their first time?
Brande Victorian is a blogger and culture writer in New York City. Follower her on Twitter at @be_vic.
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