To clear the air: Condoms and safe sex time

To clear the air: Condoms and safe sex time Avnish Kumar Sinha 26 July 2007, Thursday http://www.merinews.com/catFull.jsp?articleID=125747

While a wide variety of condoms are being made available in the market these days to cater to different tastes, the area where the companies need to concentrate is promotion of condoms as a tool of safe sex rather than one for enjoyment।

IT IS HIGH TIME that condom makers who are out to transform people’s sexual life to a completely new level must consider promoting it as a tool for safe sex rather than only a tool for happy married life।

What are the things in this world, which you can taste? No the appropriate question would be -what is your taste? Whatever is your taste you have your places and dishes to satiate your desire। But the taste factor is not limited to dishes cooked in restaurant or at home. There are certain things, which are not cooked but still available in your favourite flavour. One such thing is condom. Well, the art of making love has become tastier and titillating with different flavours and characteristics of condoms available in the market these days. So you have a choice to suit your taste.

There were times when condoms were promoted for preventing unwanted pregnancies, then with changing times and increase in the number of cases of sexually transmitted diseases, condom became a tool for safe sex. Promotion campaigns too changed into advertising campaign featuring sexy models displaying their satisfaction in a very-very candid manner. This period was the turning point in the history of condoms, which adopted more aggressive selling approach, by being forthright in their message and innovative with the products.
A country with population of over a billion where youth forms around 40per cent of the population, the condom making companies embarked on a totally different strategy to boost their sales. In an effort to spice up the sexual life of couples condoms of different flavours- chocolate, strawberry, etc, were introduced. Many different varieties of condoms are available on the shelves of our departmental stores these days. Taste is not the only characteristic of condoms; there is another type of condom, popularly known as the vibrating condom, which is also available in the market. This vibrating condom caused ripples in the political circles with many politicians expressing their unhappiness about the product terming it as unethical.
There are simply enough varieties available to cater to everybody’s preference and if you are still missing some taste and that too of a desi type then your wait is over। Bill and Melinda Gates foundation has decided to launch paan-flavoured condoms in India. But contrary to the less popularity of paan, sooner or later this is definitely going to become a hit, of a larger magnitude, but for a totally different reason. Here you have a chance to become a paan addict that too without being caught by the public.

But the irony is that no company ever insists on promoting the product as a tool for safe sex. Every advertisement promotes the idea of enjoyable sex rather than preventive sex and that’s where the purpose of the product as a safe tool dies. According to the unofficial data there are around 5.5 million HIV/AIDS positive people in India. The official figure for the same is around 3 million. But even this figure is very huge considering a bit conservative society of India and could take form of a catastrophic figure unless dealt with a proper awareness campaign.
It is high time that companies who are out to transform people’s sexual life to a completely new level must consider promoting it as a tool for safe sex rather than only a tool for happy married life.