It takes four hands, or two people, to open the box surrounding the new ‘consent condom’ created by Argentinian ad agency BBDO, in the hopes to raise awareness and highlight the importance of consent in sexual relationships.
BBDO Argentina created the ‘consent pack’ of condoms for company Tulipán (which sells adult toys and condoms) and is handing them out to the public in bars and at events around Buenos Aires.
The condoms will be available for purchase later this year, with plans to sell the product online in the future.
The packaging requires four hands to push on ‘buttons’ along the sides and top of the box to open, unlocking the condom inside.
“If they don’t say yes, it means no,” says the video demonstration tagline. “Consent is the most important thing in sex.”
The product received mixed reviews online, as some argued it “made a powerful statement” in the #MeToo era, and others saying it won’t work – as a rapist is not likely to care whether or not they have a condom on when they assault someone.
The product was created partly in response to the AHF Argentina survey of 30,000 people that determined only 14.5% of Argentinian men regularly used a condom, 65% said they occasionally used condoms and 20.5% said they’ve never used protection.
This is not the first time that technology around sexual boundaries has been tested in South America.
Last year ad agency Ogilvy partnered with Schweppes and launched the ‘The Dress for Respect’ campaign in Brazil, which centered around a dress that had sensors sewn into it to record how many times the wearer was touched, and where.
In one night, three female testers wore the dress to the Sao Paolo nightclub, where data showed they were touched 157 times in less than four hours. That averages out to more than 40 nonconsensual touches per hour.
Like the dress, the ‘consent condom’ is not meant to be a solution for sexual assault, but a tool for opening dialogue about sexual relationships, boundaries, consent and social behaviour.
