The condom conundrum: Over-sexualising ads digressing from important issue?

When the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting issued an order on Monday banning the broadcast of condom commercials between 6 am to 10 pm, a wave of disagreement ran through the country. Stating that they had received complaints from the audience about these “indecent advertisements” being unfit for children, the ministry enforced a blanket ban on broadcasting condom commercials.

The issue has now snowballed raising questions about the sensitivity of audiences and the quality of sex education in the country. However, a lot of condom brands seem to have overlooked the safe sex brief in the first case. And there is one common denominator across all explanations — over sexualisation. Think of any condom ad, the idea remains the same — a sexily clad model (or a bold actress) and a shirtless man readying themselves for the act with a sensuous background score for company.

The more we create stigma around it by banning their depiction in mainstream media, the more we would perpetuate a regressive mindset towards women and relationships
— pooja bedi

“For extra pleasure,” the commercial claims towards the end leaving your family in utter discomfort. And this hyper sexualisation seems to be a mistake on the part of condom companies.

“A lot of condom ads in the market revolve around hyper masculinity — they are very sexual in nature and is possibly an issue to television-watching audience,” says Gopal M.S., creative director at an advertising firm, while Dip Sengupta, who has spent a large chunk of his career in advertising feels, “There is a lot of sexually explicit content out there, not necessarily talking about safe sex. At the same time, I don’t think that a blanket ban on the product is welcome.”

“I don’t think the government’s decision is regressive. The content that is shown in the condom ads are definitely not okay for the viewership of children. I am all for free expression, but there’s a certain line that the marketers shouldn’t cross.

Ads can always be done decently and differently. I’ve grown up with advertising on Doordarshan and I’ve seen that,” says Piyush Pandey, Co-executive Chairman and National Creative director of Ogilvy & Mather India and and Vice-chairman of O&M Asia-Pacific.

Condom ads

However, Gopal adds that advertising condoms is tricky. “You have to appeal to an audience that is mostly sensitive, and you can’t always be too sure of your content,” he begins. “Condom ads soon started revolving around male performance in bed after they moved on from being public service announcements (read: Nirodh and Copper-T commercials). And while I have a personal problem with this show of hyper masculinity, it could also be an issue for others,” he further explains.

Piyush feels that “there’s no hard and fast rule that they shouldn’t be sensuous”. “They can be sensuous but shouldn’t show sexual crudity. There’s a thin line between the two. Our country has been doing good ads for so long but now, I can’t believe that we have come to this point. Take for example the Durex ad where the guy is rocking on the table... Are you short of ideas? As much as I stand up for creativity, don’t go to an extent which makes people uncomfortable.

Keep them informational. Spread a message. Lastly, I would just like to say that they haven’t really banned these ads. They’ve just given them an Adult certificate.”

Brand strategist Harish Bijoor brings another possible explanation to the table. “The country has been suffering from genital shyness since forever. When we see products related to face, hair and chest, we are quick to devour them. But anything pertaining to the genitals (sanitary pads, hygiene products, and condoms), we are averse to,” he says. The situation doesn’t seem to have changed. Back in the ’80s, Doordarshan had declared that sanitary pads are ‘unmentionable’ and refused to air the commercials before 10 pm.

DUREX

Long before Sunny Leone and Ranveer Singh became brand ambassadors for condom-manufacturing companies (Manforce and Durex respectively), there was Pooja Bedi who featured in a condom ad way back in the ’90s. She says, “The more we create stigma around it by banning their depiction in mainstream media, the more we would perpetuate a regressive mindset towards women and relationships.”

At the end of the day, one possible conclusion to the ban is the content rolled out by condom commercials. “The product is really relevant to the country’s population,” says Harish citing forced abortions, spread of sexually transmitted diseases and birth control as the biggest reasons.

And one way to tackle this is for the government to roll out guidelines to discipline the content instead of banning it altogether. “And maybe the advertising industry could self-regulate at their end,” suggests Gopal.