Condom Ad Makes Point A Bit Too Forcefully

By Akela Talamasca on April 14th, 2009

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Doc Morris Pharmacies has a series of ads out there for condom use, and they’re … something. All three display a flock of sperm swimming along in the same direction, with the foremost sperm sporting recognizable features belonging to an infamous historical figure: Osama Bin Laden, Adolf Hitler, and Mao Tse-dong. Their point is heavy-handed and obvious: if you don’t wear a condom, your baby could grow up to be a mass murderer.

Now, I’m no advertising expert. I don’t have the demographic figures in front of me. I can’t tell you for sure that ads based on fear work any better or worse than ads based on calm rationality, or appeals to vanity. But I have to imagine that telling someone their child is going to grow up as the instigator of a pogrom is probably not the best way to get them to buy your product.

And what’s with the colorization? Guess what? All sperm, regardless of race, are uniformly the same color: white. Colorizing the Mao Tse-dong sperm yellow smacks just a bit of racism. And for those couples who do plan on having a kid at some point, just not right now: the idea still applies. Your kid could grow up to violate human rights. So really, the architects of these ads are pretty much against the human race ever generating more copies of itself, period. No one should have children; this generation is the last. At least, I hope that’s the underlying message here. Because if it’s nothing more than a too-hastily-tossed-off idea meant just to use controversy to beef up sales, then I have to recommend that someone get fired. This ain’t the way to spread your brand, Doc Morris.