Marketing Condoms to Teens

Marketing Condoms to Teens

Is it ethical to market condoms to teenagers? Advertising catches the attention of everyone - both young and old - but seeking to "feast" on the most vulnerable - the young. With the young seeking adventure and wanting to learn and become experienced, they are captured by everything they see and hear, whether the information is ethical or unethical. Over the years, sex has become an important part of the media through advertising and sales in a world where sex is important. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), American children will view an estimated 360,000 advertisements that have sexual innuendos on television before graduating from high school.

A line of condoms marketed towards teens makes critics wonder if they are conveying a message that condoms and sex are. Jimmie Hatz condoms hit the shelves in February of 2004. "Jimmie Hat" is an urban slang term for condom. According to the marketers of the condoms, Common Ground USA, they are just promoting safe sex.

The marketing campaign targets the hip hop culture. The focus is primarily on minority communities where HIV and AIDS are spreading rapidly. "When you look at the numbers and the rate of infection continues to rise within the minority population, they're having sex," said Harry Terrell, CEO of Common Ground USA. "We say abstinence is the only way that you're going to be OK. But the fact of the matter is, we can't hide and think that they're going to stop having sex."

To grab the attention of their targeted audience, the condoms are named "Great Dane" and "Rottweiler" and come in shiny wrappers decked out with a cartoon dog wearing a thick gold chain. They also feature three flavors: grape, strawberry and banana. Many popular rappers have recorded songs that use the phrase "jimmie hats" to refer to condoms. Quotes like "For Players Puttin' in Real Work" and "Protect Ya Neck" are also printed on the wrapper. Packaging aside, the success of Jimmie Hatz will depend on reactions from the younger consumers that the condom is targeting.

Terrell became interested in AIDS activism in 1996 after learning that a baseball player on a high school team he coached had been infected. Terrell has said that the condoms are a "full- blown effort on our part to save our community."

Critics of the condoms say that Common Ground's marketing tactics are sending teens the wrong message. "I think they're basically doing what all media tries to do, which is to sell something, and teenagers are one of the biggest consumers" said Libby Gray, director of Project Reality, an abstinence-before-marriage advocacy group.

According to Jimmie Hatz website, their mission is to "increase awareness of the AIDS epidemic and decrease the rate of minority infection. Our goal is to always keep it fun and grassroots which enables us to pioneer the integration of condoms and "Hip Hop Kulture." Their vision is "that the Jimmie Hatz Logo will become synonymous with responsible sexual behavior and adopted into the Hip Hop Kulture. We will achieve this by partnering with AIDS service organizations, educational programs, companies and entertainers in the music industry, and with products released bearing the Jimmie Hatz Logo." The website goes on to say that "Common Ground USA is the only company in the world marketing condoms a.k.a. Jimmie Hatz exclusively to the highest at risk populations. Jimmie Hatz are unique and exclusively targeted for Urban Consumers."

The facts are that the number of AIDS and HIV cases is increasing at an alarming rate and shows no sign of decline. African-Americans represent the highest number of affected followed by Hispanics. Teens are also catching the deadly disease at an alarming rate.

It has been reported that more than half of teenagers in the US are sexually active. Teens make up about one quarter of the 12 million cases of STD cases reported annually. Every year, about one in four sexually active teens contract an STD. At least half of all new HIV infections in the United States are among people under 25, and the majority of young people are infected sexually.

Terrell said his condoms are about awareness. "If you look at the numbers of teens infected with the HIV / AIDS virus and other STDs, they are through the roof," Terrell said. "People think we're promoting kids to have sex. We're not. We're saying, 'If you have to have sex, protect yourself, because one mistake could cost you your life.' "

Some critics of Jimmie Hatz condoms believe that teaching abstinence to teenagers would be a better alternative to teaching safe sex. While some of the nation's schools combine pro-abstinence lessons with information about contraception and safe sex, about one-third of schools opt for abstinence-only programs. Recent studies indicate that sex education programs in schools often emphasize abstinence from sexual activity as the only safe and moral choice for teenagers.

A campaign to encourage teenagers to abstain from sex got under way when Congress authorized $50 million annually for five years to promote abstinence