Speak up!

ADVERTISING: A campaign to help Indian youth overcome a big handicap: shyness.

It doesn't take much. It's easy to say. So say it when you have to, like you'd say anything else. This is the message of Lowe India's "Condom Bindaas Bol" advertising campaign, currently airing on TV.

One spot has a bunch of coolies nudging a hesitant peer to say the word "condom" aloud. Another has lawyers encouraging a colleague to do the same. The idea is to take the sting of embarrassment out of the condom by making it a word that doesn't attract glares.

This, reasons Lowe, is the best way to promote the use of latex prophylactics, which research indicates are up against a mental block in almost every socio-economic segment.

According to a survey conducted by Synovate India in 2005-06 in north Indian cities, two out of every five men admit purchase occasion "embarrassment" as a barrier to condom usage.

Typically, this sense heightens if the transaction undergoes elongation "" say, in asking for specific types. Shyness in buying condoms, of course, comes from a fear of social reproach. Or worse, a fear of being judged to be a sexual deviant.

It's a challenge. "How do you normalise the image of a condom?" asks Anand Sinha, country director, United States Agency for International Development (USAID) India, which initiated the effort in 2004 in collaboration with ICICI Bank and the Ministry of Family and Health Welfare (MoHFW), an effort that is now in its third phase.

Most commercial condom brands, assuming that the generic decision of usage has already been taken, tend to focus on the pleasure of making love, to use the adline of a top brand.

And social campaigns like the Heroes Project or the BBC World Service Trust-National Aids Control Organisation-Prasar Bharti campaign, tend to promote the condom as a safety device against HIV-AIDS and other horrors.

According to Sinha, the campaign intends not to make the condom aspirational or embarrassing in any way, but a sign of being responsible and caring.

The seven-month long campaign, apart from using a mix of public service ads and celebrity endorsements, will also have on-ground activities to engage shopkeepers and customers across 10 north Indian states.

Shops are being encouraged to display condoms openly and prominently through a display contest. There are also on-the-spot prizes for customers who ask for condoms confidently.

The retail trade is enthusiastic. In fact, some shops in Agra and Bhopal are already reporting higher sales on account of better display. Lowe claims success on other measures too.

Condom usage amongst its target audience, it claims, has increased to 41 per cent in 2005 from 37 per cent in 2004. People, it seems, are learning to speak up at last.