BlogHer - Networks Put a Sock on New Trojan Ad - Comments

Hi Logan!

Liz Rizzo — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 11:58:34 -0500

I thought the commercial was clever - And I'm all for anything that promotes condom use!

I LOVE that Trojan is focusing on encouraging condom use over all; I think that's really smart.

I blog at Everyday Goddess and On The Lot.

We need to Evolve!

Logan Levkoff — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 11:21:21 -0500

Full disclosure - I proudly serve on Trojan's Advisory Council and am well versed in the Evolve campaign (and yes, I even have a video about women carrying condoms on the trojanevolve.com website). Blatant media hypocrisy aside, the Evolve campaign is about a cultural shift. Currently we are sexually unhealthy on many fronts - our abstinence only policies are abhorrent, our treatment of anyone or anything perceived as sexually "diverse" is still light years away from tolerant, and our own sexual behaviors are far from safe. The Evolve campaign (and those of us who support it) seeks to change our culture so that we can be an evolved sexual society - one that respects differences, believes in the physical and emotional protection of ourselves and our partners, and recognizes that every individual is entitled to make his or her own decisions about sexuality. We do not judge others, but rather, allow people to make informed decisions. The Evolve ad isn't about all men being pigs - it could have been anybody. The point here is that partners who don't respect their sexual health (or ours) are not worthy of sex with us. Piggish behavior is not limited to men; women do it too. Nonetheless, we should all be trying to better ourselves and the world that we live in. And if this Trojan campaign initiates a dialogue about how to do that, I am all for it!

That's really strange that

Absurda — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 20:06:32 -0500

That's really strange that you can't advertise condoms as birth control. It made me think of all the birth control adds the pharmacies put out on TV. Ya know, come to think of it I don't think they advertise those to prevent pregnancy either. It's all about controlling your period or PMS/PMDD symptoms. They call it birth control pills, but they never talk about preventing pregnancy. Weird.

I'm going to post a link to the on-line commercial.

Gena Haskett — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 18:40:38 -0500

I mean, really, how are you supposed to buy condoms for the dude if you don't know what the dude is packing? There must be some guidelines that I haven't been told about.

You don't want to buy too small or too big cuz I'm thinking it ain't like too long pantyhose where you pull the extra under your feet.

I think that menfolk are a little too touchy about that length thing. Or so I hear.

On the site they have sex health and education as well as links to sell the product.

I know it is a product being sold by a manufacturer but I'm with them 100% on this. It is hypocritical for TV network who sell or display sexual content seven night a week not to show this commercial.

I want to write more about this on my blog but no glove no love and raspberries to the dinosaurs (television) networks.

Trojan Evolve Video For help in the condom selection guide check out Condom Selector Guide

By any means necessary...

Gena - Out On The Stoop

It is truly strange

Liz Rizzo — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 16:52:33 -0500

To learn that anyone thinks using birth control to prevent pregnancy is a moral issue. Weird.

The fact that major networks would deny a condom ad because it's birth control is just really, really bizarre.

Liz Rizzo

I blog at Everyday Goddess and On The Lot.

Huh?

Mama Zen — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 10:34:23 -0500

So, what do the networks think that we think condoms are for? Balloon animals?

www.thezenofmotherhood.blogspot.com

the mind boggles

laurie — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 09:52:33 -0500

I couldn't say it better than you and others already have, Suzanne.

Heaven forfend that folks should be exposed to the suggestion that condoms are used to prevent pregnancy.

laurie
www.notjustaboutcancer.blogspot.com

Networks Put a Sock on New Trojan Ad

Suzanne Reisman — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 09:25:50 -0500

Trojan condoms are back in the news again, this time as a champion of sexual health and reproductive rights. (In 2005, they launched Elexa - traditional condoms that are gender marketed so that women will feel more comfortable buying them â€“ and backed them up with a wonderful blog, SexySmart, full of practical and insightful advice and thoughts on sexuality by a team of women bloggers.) With "Evolve," their latest ad campaign, Trojan is using crude humor (men are pigs until they buy condoms and evolve into responsible and desirable humans) to promote safe sex. The New York Times reports that the ad has been rejected by CBS and FOX. Fox's reason? â€œContraceptive advertising must stress health-related uses rather than the prevention of pregnancy.â€ (Because as we all know, preventing unwanted pregnancies is obviously not a "health-related use" of condoms. Nope.) CBS noted, "â€¦we do not find it appropriate for our network even with late-night-only restrictions.â€ (Of course, women being tortured during prime time on early episodes of "Criminal Minds" and "Close to Home" is perfectly appropriate for their network. No moral issues there.)

The blog world is full of commentary on the networks' actions and reproductive health. Liza at The Feminist Bloggers Network wrote:

The ad doesnâ€™t argue that men are de facto pigs, but it does suggest that men who push for condom-less sex are pigs, and thatâ€™s a pretty fair assessment of that behavior. But the stereotype issues aside, the issue with this ad is that Fox and CBS rejected the ad and not because it peddles in the same stereotypes that their programming uses. No, they took issue with advertising condoms as being used for what they are used forâ€¦ Translation: We can accept advertising of sexual devices if they are advertised as benefiting men. But if they insinuate something as crazy as the concept that men should respect womenâ€™s bodies, health, and choices, then theyâ€™re way out of line.

Also as part of a longer piece on how this latest action kowtows to zealots' efforts to stymie reproductive rights, Jill Filipovic reminded us at The Huffington Post that:

The vast majority of American women will use contraception at some point in their lives. People of both sexes want to plan their families. Self-determination is a desire that crosses all party lines and ideologies. All of this makes it even more fascinating when a fairly quotidian advertisement makes waves because it attempts to sell condoms, while few of us so much as bat an eyelash at the constant stream of highly sexualized images we see on television every day.

Carol Carrozza, vice president of marketing for Ansell Healthcare, which makes LifeStyles condoms, summed the hypocritical situation up very nicely when she told the Times, â€œWe always find it funny that you can use sex to sell jewelry and cars, but you canâ€™t use sex to sell condoms." Ha ha. The joke is on us.

Suzanne also blogs at Campaign for Unshaved Snatch (CUSS) & Other Rants and was very disappointed on a recent road trip when the condom machines in a gas station bathroom did not work, thus denying her one of six surprise products from "Pandora's Box"