A puppy called Condom creates AIDS awareness

The fourth and final phase of the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) campaign centers on a puppy called 'Condom'.

The campaign, launched in association with the BBC World Service Trust (BBCWST), is on television currently.

The campaign aims at promoting condoms and fortifying India's HIV/AIDS control efforts. It plans to shock the masses and get them talking about the issue, apart from simply doing what an ad campaign is supposed to do. The campaign will use TV and cinema as its media vehicles.

Produced by Equinox Films and directed by Milind Dhaimade, the TVC is being broadcast in five languages – Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Marathi. The research and creative duties have been handled by the BBCWST team, while the media duties have been taken care of by Madison.

The Advertisement
The advertisement opens on a shot of a Bharti Achrekar playing with a puppy. She turns to its owner (Vrajesh Hirjee) who also has a parrot, and enquires about the name of the pup. They reply 'Condom'. She falls for it and starts calling the puppy aloud by the name. This creates a scene and she unabashedly asks what's the problem with condoms?

The film summarises this in the tagline, 'Jo Samjha Wohi Sikander (The One Who Understands is the Winner)'. The lady is applauded by men and women of all ages, reinforcing that condoms mean good sense and those who know it are the real winners in life.

In its first phase, the Condom campaign featured a Jo Bola Wohi Sikander contest, which ran from 1 December to 20 December 2007. This contest was run in the four highest HIV prevalant states in India, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu.

Phase 2 was a national campaign, with a TV and radio ad featuring a 'kabaddi' match. The ad was broadcast from 7 March to 18 April 2008. It aimed to get men to talk about condoms because this has a positive effect on condom use, and to show social support for this demonstration of smart and responsible behaviour.

Phase 3 featured condom ringtone ads in August and September 2008. It was extended across television, radio, online (viral and a website, www.condomcondom.org) and mobile push-throughs (SMSing 'condom' to 5676787 in India).