Here Comes "Condom" Ringtone to Fight HIV/AIDS

To promote the use of condoms in India, the BBC World Service Trust has found an unusual way- launched a "condom condom" campaign, which is designed to demolish Indians' reluctance to discuss condom use and to make the male contraceptive more acceptable.

Produced by the BBC World Service Trust and funded by a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the campaign, being run on radio, TV and the Internet, is part of a two-year project to encourage more widespread use of condoms.

The central message of the campaign is that “smart men use condoms.” The tag line is: “Jo Samjha Wohi Sikander (One who understands is the winner)”.

The TV commercial features a man attending a wedding party. In the middle of the wedding, his mobile ringtone buzzes with a loud refrain "condom! condom!". Though the man feels it embarrassing, those around him consider him to be a smart and responsible person.

Organizers have used a cellphone ringtone that chants "condom, condom" to promote safe sex and tackle the growing HIVdefine/AIDS epidemic in India, where nearly 2.5 million people are living with this deadly infection.

Available in five languages - Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Marathi, the ringtone can be downloaded both via SMS or the website www.condomcondom.org. The ringtone seemingly has gained quite some popularity since its launch. It has reportedly been downloaded more than 60,000 times 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.

India’s National AIDS Control Organization (NACO) is also using the advertisement to support its efforts to promote condom use.

Encouraging people to use condoms via mobile phones is a wise idea as India is the world's fastest-growing mobile telephone market with 270 million users, up 57 percent in just one year.