condom earworm PSA from India

October 28, 2007 1:11 PM

The Condom Song is a charmingly bizarre safe-sex message from India. Music and humor are often used to promote safe sex and pregnancy prevention, alternatives to shock tactics. Bangkok's safe sex theme restaurants represent a slightly more novel approach, a chain called Cabbages and Condoms. Whatever the style, condom promotion is much more mainstream than when the Golden Girls' had their first awkward encounter and British comedians tackled uncomfortable condom language. NSFW
posted by madamjujujive (30 comments total)

Nothing spreads the message to the masses like elbow-length opera gloves.
posted by phaedon at 1:35 PM on October 28, 2007

The Surgeon General announced today that he will recommend changing the country seal from an eagle to a condom because it more accurately reflects our politics.

A condom stands up to inflation, halts production, destroys the next generation, protects a bunch of pricks, and gives you a sense of security while you're actually being screwed
posted by growabrain at 1:46 PM on October 28, 2007 [11 favorites]

My wife and I met an Indian safe sex education committee of about eight men in a freezing lodge in the hills near Darjeeling a few years back.

It was great: after telling us about condoms, they got drunk as hell on cheap rum, started arguing and then wound up smacking the crap out of each other in a massive fist fight. The next day, no-one could remember what happened so we posed for photos with them and their condoms, shook hands and went our respective ways.
posted by rhymer at 1:50 PM on October 28, 2007 [1 favorite]

growabrain, you forgot is insensitive to women, is dependent on petroleum industry, and is bad for the environment.

That last link had me in stitches, aside from the description of Hugh Laurie sprawled on a rug. Serious business, that.
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 2:00 PM on October 28, 2007 [1 favorite]

I remember seeing that Golden Girls skit on rerun a few years back. I was impressed that the topic of safe sex for seniors was tackled that long ago on TV, considering how in recent years there have been so many studies about how senior citizens are seeing a huge rise in HIV infections.

I do love the Golden Girls.
posted by greta simone at 2:08 PM on October 28, 2007

I for one salute madamjuju as our new condom overlord !

And that tune in the first link is soooo catchy ! Makes me want to use not one, not two, but three condoms ! In a row ! Not AT THE SAME TIME!
posted by elpapacito at 2:15 PM on October 28, 2007

elpapacito - someone has already tested how many condoms you can wear at once. Do not try this on any body part that you value.
posted by madamjujujive at 2:21 PM on October 28, 2007

I am made in different colors with fragrance.
posted by xthlc at 2:51 PM on October 28, 2007

madamjujujive writes "Do not try this on any body part that you value."

Ewww that was scary to say the least, but damn that rubber is tough. Personally I liked Condomania but they no longer produce custom-fit condoms :( ( that'd be a good askme question, who knows some other custom condom producere ???) but they still have a good Wizard fitting any need, size, shape.
posted by elpapacito at 3:03 PM on October 28, 2007

Ambrosia, Condoms are made out of rubber, not petrolium.
(You may not believe it, but I know more about manufacturing & distribution of condoms than any other subject...)
posted by growabrain at 3:08 PM on October 28, 2007

Let me reiterate, for it may not be clear. The first video beats hands down any Hollywood/Bollywood shitniz, it's tons of win !
posted by elpapacito at 3:12 PM on October 28, 2007

hehehe at The Golden Girls clip. I remember that episode. Those old gals were pretty ground-breaking for their time.
posted by amyms at 3:30 PM on October 28, 2007

Camo condoms = Sneaky fuckers
posted by Jumpin Jack Flash at 3:48 PM on October 28, 2007

The Condom Song is my new favoritest music video ever ever. Easily wins for Best Costumes In a Music Video category. The choreography and art direction? Top notch. And the very stripped down (ironic!) musical arrangement is, you'll pardon the expression, right up my alley: you've got your hand drums and shakey-bells, your vocal on top of that, and the occasional well-placed cheesy synth line or sound effect. To me this is sonic perfection. It doesn't get any better than this.

Would favorite again!!!! madamejujujive: best-of-the-web queen.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:30 PM on October 28, 2007

My god, it's five hours later and I'm still watching The Condom Song and laughing my ass off.
posted by xthlc at 6:11 PM on October 28, 2007

big, round, blue, come-hump-me-savagely nipples.

oh, hugh. hugh, hugh, hugh.
posted by CitizenD at 6:50 PM on October 28, 2007

madamjujujive, a marvelous concocksion of totally hilarous vidoes! The dancers dressed up as condoms in the first ad take after the wonderful make-up of Kathakali.

The gay awareness one was funny, heartbreaking, shocking, surprising, it was some kind of cultural roller coaster that went so fast I was dizzy by the end of it. The pregnancy prevention one was painfully funny too.

CabbagesAndCondoms sounds like the Hedonism resort of the East. Aptly in Bangkok.

My bad geography joke: Lahore, Bangkok, Bangalore, Mysore.

Adding to the condom surprise theme...Did you know that condoms are used in India to make silk fabric more shiny? Or used in construction? Yup, they are...

A condom found in a bottle of Pepsi was an expensive oops.

A blog, Cutting the Chai, largely dedicated to rubbers of India, videos, some very fun and quite sexy.

Condom SizeMoGraph.

Ok, dumb foreigner anecdote. I'd been studying Buddhist scriptures pretty intensely for a few years in India, learning Sanskrit and Pali vocabulary as needed. One day I walked into a crowded Indian general store, often a fun cultural experience, and picked up a box labeled in Sanskrit with the word for "cessation of all delusions and suffering through the diligent practice of meditation". Intrigued and delighted, I asked the shopkeeper, "What is this Nirodh?". All customers' eyes swiveled towards me. "For the husband," he said. "I don't understand", thinking but nirvana is for everybody. A kind man whispered to me, "Condoms, madam" and I felt that hot rush in my face of having made a total idiot of myself.
posted by nickyskye at 7:19 PM on October 28, 2007 [1 favorite]

Nickyskye, with your own wonderful posts and your tireless and excellent linkage in other people's FPPs, you are the other best-of-the-web queen*! That Nirodh story is hilarious!

*I hope you two don't mind sharing that throne. I guess you have to alternate wearing the crown, though... Every other day kind of system?
posted by flapjax at midnite at 7:30 PM on October 28, 2007

majamjujujive is most definitely The Queen. And thanks for the lovely compliment flapjax. :)

Of course I forgot to mention that Nirodh is the number one manufacturer of condoms in India.
posted by nickyskye at 8:05 PM on October 28, 2007

Of course I forgot to mention that Nirodh is the number one manufacturer of condoms in India.

Well, since the name figured so prominently in The Condom Song clip, I figured it must be something like that.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 8:19 PM on October 28, 2007

Of course I forgot to mention that Nirodh is the number one manufacturer of condoms in India.

It is also owned by the Indian government, and was set up for "family planning" purposes.
posted by hariya at 3:31 AM on October 29, 2007

Dawn here in nyc. Before having that first cup of coffee, popped over to the blue and thought I'd catch the final condom videos of this thread. The Golden Girls one wouldn't download last night and still won't, so moved on to Brit one. Now sitting here with tears of laughter rolling down my cheeks. Great way to start the day.
posted by nickyskye at 4:04 AM on October 29, 2007

nickyskye and hairya, thanks for the info about Nirodh!

And nicky, as always you add so much to the thread - your story about seeking nirvana is hilarious. And from the Cutting the Chai condom blog you linked, we learn that India is searching for a Mr. Condom - now there's a job opportunity for the right person! Any volunteers?

flapjax at midnite, thanks for your kind words ;-)
posted by madamjujujive at 5:00 AM on October 29, 2007

My Indian mind. It is officially blown.
posted by SPUTNIK at 7:34 AM on October 29, 2007

SPUTNIK, that was a loaded comment. :)

Apparently, in Japan they make Super Big Boy condoms with a horse's image on the wrapper. hmmm, What could that analogy mean? Could it be for that coverless umbrella under the safe sex link?
posted by nickyskye at 8:42 AM on October 29, 2007

Ladies and gentlemen, this was prime-time television in early 90's in India. Not the song per se, but English AIDS-prevention ads with a Telugu voice-over. Clearly, that approach didn't help; we went from zero to 5% AIDS in less than a decade in Andhra Pradesh.

Ironic to see the reverse happening here. Interesting if this would help.
posted by the cydonian at 7:43 PM on October 29, 2007

Another quick linguistic point: fascinating that they're using the English words, 'condom' and 'sex' in the song, albeit with a Telugu-ized pronounciation.

Traditionally, sarkari, that is governmental, advertisements used to use Sanskrit-ized equivalents for those terms; clearly, calling sexual-intercourse as 'laingika sampargam' didn't really get them too far, did it.
posted by the cydonian at 7:52 PM on October 29, 2007

the cydonian, a quick aside. In 1998 I was visiting Mt. Sinai Hospital here in NYC. It's a very reputable hospital. In the cafeteria I sat down at a table with an Indian doctor in his mid-30's and we begant to talk. He said, among other things, that he predicted that 10% of India would die of AIDS in the next ten years. I was stunned. Never saw him again and dreaded hearing that AIDS had become a pandemic in India, killings many, many millions.

Googling AIDS statistics in India, People living with HIV/AIDS 2 million - 3.1 million
Adult (15 years or above) HIV prevalence 0.36%

Previously it was thought that around 5 million people were living with HIV in India - more than in any other country. Better data, including the results of a national household survey, led to a major revision of the prevalence estimate in July 2007. It is now thought that around 2.5 million people in India are living with HIV.

Back-calculation suggests that HIV prevalence in India has changed little over recent years and may have declined slightly in 2006.

Could those ads be working?

This is not to say that encouraging people to have safe 'laingika sampargam' as a campaign has worked as well as it could, or if modern colloquial terms were used the results would be better...but maybe it made asking for a cessation of worldly suffering, er, a Nirodh, more respectable and therefore less embarrassing to ask for in the store?

It would be hilarious if one had condom ads in the West that spoke about sex in the Latinate or Old English.
posted by nickyskye at 10:37 PM on October 29, 2007

Was in the Encyclopedia Dramatic, looking up Leet words and happened on this condom ad from France. I know it's been linked in MetaFilter before but it's still shocking. Great incentive for using condoms, for sure. yikes. Sex without protection [nsfw].
posted by nickyskye at 12:35 PM on October 31, 2007

In the cafeteria I sat down at a table with an Indian doctor in his mid-30's and we begant to talk. He said, among other things, that he predicted that 10% of India would die of AIDS in the next ten years.

:-)

I have nothing to add, really, except recommending My Own Country, a fascinating account by an American doctor of Indian origin on how AIDS spread in rural Tennessee, ballooning from one patient to a bunch. Extremely engrossing read.

(I have friends and family engaged in this whole drug-discovery/ healthcare umbrella. Been doing some reading on all this; will post something in a day or two.)

But yes. Let's just say that now there's a lot more attention now; lots of money pouring in. There could be qualified good news in terms of stats (in fact, I know at least one researcher who says that numbers could have been inflated, for the amount of funding pouring in; she had actually published some statistical analysis on this in an academic journal), but honestly, don't think we've turned a tipping point as yet.

I'm absolutely intrigued as to how that French ad would go down in India. :-D I'm thinking, most folk would scratch their heads and say, 'Gee, they have big spiders in France, don't they', or something. I don't know.
posted by the cydonian at 3:32 AM on November 8, 2007