Publimedia annuls offensive condom campaign

Publimedia Annuls Offensive Condom Campaign
Publimedia, an advertising company that administrates the bus ads of “Empresa Municipal de Transportes” (EMT, Madrid), has vetoed an ad campaign launched by “Catholics for Choice”.
Catholics for Choice is a pro-abortion association, promoter of the use of condoms. It planned to launch an ad campaign with the followig slogan: We believe in God, we believe that sex is sacred, we believe in taking care of one another, and we believe in the use of condoms. This campaign was scheduled to be launched during Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to Madrid in August.
Publimedia decided to reject the ad campaign after judging it to be offensive. The company assessed that the slogan could hurt the sensitivity of a significant amount of the population.
The rejection of ad campaigns is a Publimedia initiative that is warned before hand on the contracts that it stipulates with its clients. Rejection happens under certain circumstances, among them is the insolence and inappropriateness of ad content.
Catholics for Choice, with main branch in San Francisco, was informed of the veto. Its advertising agency will try it all in order for the ads to reach the streets and the mass. In recent years, it has launched various ad campaigns at an international level with the aims of promoting sex education and the use of the condom as a means to avoid the transmission of HIV/AIDS.
Moreover, Edward Green, chief of HIV/AIDS prevention at Harvard University, assured to the Catholic News Agency that condoms are deteriorating the situation in Africa. Green affirms that ever since HIV/AIDS took Africa by storm, the condom industry has executed a marketing strategy in order to gain subsidies for condom production and distribution in Africa. The “death business” had arrived in the continent.
Instead, Green agrees with Uganda’s strategy: aboriginal education to reduce promiscuity. Uganda has effectively decreased its HIV/AIDS transmission rate by two-thirds, because this strategy has stirred abstinence before marriage while promoting fidelity after marriage. (Translated by Gianna A. Sanchez Moretti)
Author and journalist Clemente Ferrer has led a distinguished career in Spain in the fields of publicity and press relations. He is currently President of the European Institute of Marketing.
clementeferrer3@gmail.com