Just to bookend my post about the lame new safe sex ad from THT that somehow fails to sell condoms, here’s a condom ad from Ansell that doesn’t sell safe sex.
Niall over at Dangerous Minds considers this a terrible failure; I’m not so sure. Ansell are in the business of selling their condoms, not safe sex generically, and their strategy here is differentiating SKYN condoms from all the others. It’s sex-positive and it’s honest: it says no more than what most condom users feel about them.
Unlike the THT ad this one makes an explicit statement about benefit: they’re different, ‘this changes everything’, and of course there’s the name SKYN (‘skin’). If someone else who hates condoms sees this ad, tries the product and likes it, there’s your safe sex outcome.
And while I’m not wild about the sexy half-naked woman making ‘come hither’ eyes, I’m pretty damn sure this ad is targeted at men, who still (in this century!) tend to buy condoms. And at least it’s showing a woman who’s definite about what she likes and dislikes. Just… what is she lying on!? Is that bedspread denim?
Just one teensy-weensy little irony here… SKYN condoms are the worst condoms I have ever used. They’re the only condoms I have ever found actually painful. I get that for the receptive partner all condoms can dry out and get grippy and become uncomfortable/painful. The trick is to apply reapply a good water-based lube before you feel any discomfort.
BUT – and here’s where it gets weird – I was the penetrative partner. We used them several times, and I suspect the thinness of the synthetic latex enables it to fold, causing crinkles that pinch the skin.
At the time, we were heading towards a relationship but it was still casual and we hadn’t been mutually tested yet, and the sheer discomfort contributed to some occasions of unprotected sex — only the second time in my life I have done that. But that’s a personal experience and your mileage (inchage?) may vary.