The Industry is Selling You Sex

Sex sells, or at least that is what many condom brands hope. The condom industry, and frankly companies peddling everything from fast food to cars, have been using sex to try to sell their products for years.

According to Ad Age, “The origins of sexual appeals in U.S. advertising can be traced to medicinal products advertised before the Civil War. These ads featured wood engravings of women's faces, often the only illustrations on the page, to attract the reader's attention.” Wood engravings… are you turned on yet?

With data showing that nearly 1 in 4 advertisements using sex to sell their products, we call bullshit. Spare us the ‘sexy’ images of shirtless dudes riding farm equipment or scowling women in crop tops with soaking wet hair.

Here’s a novel idea: What if a condom company just focused on making better condoms? While the rest of the condom industry continues to peddle sex, we’ll keep focused on making the thinnest, strongest, softest, highest quality, most comfortable condoms we can. The sex, we’ll leave to you. 

Sources: UGA, Ad Age