Imagine the expression on the faces of those around you when your mobile suddenly starts buzzing with an unlikely ringtone: “Condom, condom”.
The “Condom a cappella” ringtone features in a new advertisement campaign launched earlier this year, as part of a two-year project of using the mass media to make condom use more acceptable.
The campaign has been produced by the BBC World Service Trust and funded by a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) is also using the advertisement to support its condom promotion efforts.
The ringtone, which can be downloaded both via SMS or the website www.condomcondom.org, has gained quite some popularity since its launch - with over 60,000 downloads in the last 12 days.
“Ringtones have become such personal statements that a specially created condom ringtone seemed just the right vehicle to define its user as a sensible person,” Radharani Mitra, creative director of the BBC World Service Trust, said.
“We have always had a strong interactive, response-oriented element in this ongoing campaign. This downloadable ringtone provides yet another opportunity for our target audience to translate the message into an action point.
“The very act of downloading and using this ringtone would have a counter effect on the inhibitions and taboos that can be associated with condoms. And it adds an element of fun and comfort to it,” Mitra added.
The ringtone phase is in five languages - Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Marathi. It is the third instalment of the ongoing condom popularisation campaign.
