The Condom Ad Too Sexy for CBS and Fox

Posted by Guest Blogger at 3:25 PM on June 18, 2007.

This post, written by Vanessa Valenti, originally appeared on Feministing

Two major broadcasting companies have rejected a new Trojan ad along with a new campaign because it focuses on pregnancy prevention rather than "health-related issues" such as STIs.

I will admit the ad is your typical mainstream condom commercial; heterosexual and model-like women wandering through a bar surrounded by a bunch of a pigs...literally. Well, I'll just let you watch it.

So do I like the commercial? Not particularly, but I looked through the website of this new campagin Trojan is launching titled "Evolve," and it definitely sounds like one I'd be willing to support: they discuss the misinformation that abstinence-only programs put forth about the inefficacy of condoms, the fact that often ideology is often promoted over real information, and their intent to put forth the message that "sex isn't an unhealthy thing needs to be policed or demonized."

The ad is being aired tonight on a number of networks, except FOX and CBS who refused to air it. Fox's reasoning was that "contraceptive advertising must stress health-related uses rather than the prevention of pregnancy," and CBS wrote, "while we understand and appreciate the humor of this creative, we do not find it appropriate for our network even with late-night-only restrictions."

Funny thing is that while even the New York Times piece on this contends that TV networks restrict ads with a somewhat sexual nature like Viagra for late night and early mornings, every year the Superbowl manages to stick in a Cialis, Levitra or Viagra commercial or two in there; in fact, both Levitra and Cialis ads were featured in Superbowl XXXVIII which was - what do you know - aired on CBS..

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Tagged as: sex, media, condoms

Vanessa Valenti is an editor for Feministing. She is a graduate of the BA program in Women's and Gender Studies at Rutgers University. She has worked with the Mount Sinai Sexual Assault and Violence Intervention Program, NARAL Pro-Choice America and Girls for Gender Equity