Adolescent Sexuality by Dr. Karen Rayne

Jill Filipovic wrote for the Huffington Post on why the CBS and Fox executives might have decided not to run the new Trojan ad. I really recommend you read the piece in its entirety, but here’s the first and last bits, to get you really interested:

According to a Fox executive, “Contraceptive advertising must stress health-related uses rather than the prevention of pregnancy.” One has to wonder where this executive got the idea that pregnancy is not a health-related issue (maybe he sat in on a few too many Bush-funded abstinence-only education classes). While the executive may appear to simply lack a rudimentary understanding of pregnancy, it’s more likely that he is bowing to demands of the “moral majority” in the United States — a vocal and powerful political force that claims to be pro-life and pro-family, but doesn’t actually believe in preventing unwanted pregnancy.
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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.

While Fox executives are comfortable airing an ad of Paris Hilton in a bathing suit soaping herself up to sell hamburgers, they refuse an ad that promotes condom use for pregnancy and disease prevention. It’s an interesting twist on the old advertising adage — Sex sells, just don’t try to sell safer sex.

So here’s the thing: we must start serious sex education in our country. Our teen pregnancy and STD/STI transmission rates are abysmal when compared to other industrialized countries. Really, it’s just embarrassing. Its been shown often enough that abstinence-only-until-marriage either has no effect or has a negative effect on adolescent sexuality. I continue to be amazed that in the fact of the high need of our teenagers and the high impact of a relatively simple solution (comprehensive sex education) our country continues to do nothing.

So rebel! Go tell all the teenagers you know about safe sex! E-mail them a condom commercial! Send them to a website designed to be really informative! Hand out condoms outside your local high school (be sure to do it just off of school grounds)! Volunteer at Planned Parenthood! Call your Senators and Representatives to say you are firmly in favor of comprehensive sex education, that safe sex must be taught in our schools! Sign the petition to have CBS and Fox air condom commercials! You can have an effect on individuals and on our country as a whole.

There’s a new condom ad on the block, and it’s getting a lot of attention. Here is a description from Commercial Alert:

In a commercial for Trojan condoms that has its premiere tonight, women in a bar are surrounded by anthropomorphized, cellphone-toting pigs. One shuffles to the men’s room, where, after procuring a condom from a vending machine, he is transformed into a head-turner in his 20s. When he returns to the bar, a fetching blond who had been indifferent now smiles at him invitingly.

Directed by Phil Joanou (“State of Grace”), with special effects by the Stan Winston Studio (“Jurassic Park”), the commercial is entertaining. But it also has a message, spelled out at the end: “Evolve. Use a condom every time.”

The ad sounds pretty funny. Konagod tells us why Fox and CBS decided not to air the commercial (ABC has picked it up and it will air for the first time tonight):

CBS and FOX have rejected a new ad for Trojan condoms because of a focus on pregnancy prevention.

Representatives for both Fox and CBS confirmed that they had refused the ads, but declined to comment further.

In a written response to Trojan, though, Fox said that it had rejected the spot because, “Contraceptive advertising must stress health-related uses rather than the prevention of pregnancy.”

Sometimes the effort to avoid offending a segment of society is offensive in and of itself. I could go on a rant but this media critic summed up my feelings rather nicely:

“It’s so hypocritical for any network in this culture to go all puritanical on the subject of condom use when their programming is so salacious,” said Mark Crispin Miller, a media critic who teaches at New York University. “I mean, let’s get real here. Fox and CBS and all of them are in the business of nonstop soft porn, but God forbid we should use a condom in the pursuit of sexual pleasure.”

This attitude and reluctance to talk openly about safe sex affects teenagers at higher rates than anyone else. Teenagers just have fewer places to go for good information.

I’m going to start posting more condom ads here. Send them to your teenagers! They are, by and large, funny, informative, and attitude changing (i.e., they provide the perspective that normal people carry condoms). The first one is just below this post.