From Awareness To Pure Pleasure, How Condom Ads Have Changed Over The Years In India

If you're a sabhaya citizen of this country, you are not supposed to know what 'condoms' are before 10 pm and after 6 am. And until you are married, you are not supposed to have used them at all. We have all awkwardly flipped through the channels, when a condom ad has aired on TV while we were watching something with our family. In fact, a lot of us still do it, even when we're well beyond 18.

Nowadays, you see Sunny Leone hinting towards the pleasure of different flavors and textures of condoms in Television advertisements, but these ads were very different just a decade ago.

About 15 years ago, Doordarshan was still the leading channel and not everyone had cable TV. So, if any awkward ad came on, there was no option of skipping it. May be that is why, ads like the one linked below are stuck in the heads of 90s kids.

The man¡¯s phone ringtone is just the word 'condom' lyrically sung, and initially it makes everyone a tad bit uncomfortable. But then they are like no, wait¡­this is right, what is the shame after all? But notice how the setting is a wedding and the bride is telling her husband to get a similar ringtone.

The moods ad below, portrays a husband and wife about to have their suhagraat, and stresses how important it is to use condoms.

But here is the thing - in a country of over a 1.2 billion, population is obviously a problem. Condoms are by far the cheapest method of contraception available to this population. Initially, condom ads did not just propagate the message of birth control, but also raised awareness about sexual diseases like HIV. The innovative ad below doesn't promote a particular brand, instead, it is just an awareness campaign by NACO (National AIDS Control Organisation).

Another interesting NACO ad is this bhabhi letting the maid subtly know that the unmarried devar using a condom is not a big deal. The matter is dealt with offhandedly.

The marketing eventually started to change and the setting of condom ads moved from the semi-rural married household, to urban setting and included even unmarried couples. But with this change in relationship, came the change in the marketed use of condom. Protection was secondary now. Condom ads sold the product highlighting the pleasure value.

The ads also became more suggestive instead of being ¡®in your face¡¯. For example, this series of small ads have double meaning as their USP and use cricket terms as euphemisms for sex-related terms. Also to be noticed is the fact that the shift in the target audience caused a shift in the language from Hindi to English.

Coming to the ads featuring Sunny Leone. Confession: the first time her ad came out, I literally thought it was another trailer of one of her upcoming movies. Absolutely nothing about these ads hint towards it being so. There is sensual dancing, playing around, basically every romantic scene from every romantic movie ever, and at the end of the clip the branding makes you realize, 'Oh, it¡¯s a condom ad'.

But why, from ¡®in your face¡¯, ¡®awareness about STDs is important¡¯, ¡®control of population¡¯ and use of a language that has a wider audience, have the modern day ads changed to essentially being urban-centric, suggestive and employing a language spoken by a select few?

Understood that the market is increasingly becoming youth oriented, but what about the rural areas? Can a couple in a rural area relate to or understand or take a lesson from an advertisement like the one linked above? Why have most brands given up on spreading awareness about the need of using condoms (apart from pleasure for the urban young adults)?

Reuters

Even though there are government programs that distribute free condoms in rural areas, brands do not actually advertise at places where the penetration of Internet, Television and radio is not possible. There are other reasons some men may refuse to use condoms, despite being aware of their necessity. Remember that scene in Lipstick Under My Burqa, where the wife insists the husband use protection? But his ego reigns over his rationality and he refuses to do the right thing.

Reuters

Sexual acts are obviously (well, may be not all the time) carried out behind closed doors, but we all see the results right? One billion of people did not just sprout out of the earth. And with the problems that increasing population is causing, it seems that the condom companies should do more than just make their brands ¡®attractive¡¯ enough. Advertising on the basis of flavors and types is understood, but there is a need to find effective ways of reaching out to a wider audience and acquainting them of all the reasons to use protection.