Condom ad pricking consciences

2002-03-20 07:54

Nairobi - In bars, shops, restaurants and homes across Kenya, racy TV ads attempting to encourage condom use are making adults fume and adolescents squirm.

Letters to the editor in the newspapers of this profoundly conservative East African nation - where an estimated 700 people die every day from Aids - complain that the ads encourage promiscuity. They are also showing up, although in less explicit form, in posters and billboards along the highways.

The ads were placed by the non-governmental organisation, Population Services International, to promote its heavily subsidised condoms.

"I don't think it (the ad) has a message, and it's even more embarrassing when you watch it with your parents or young ones around," said James Njunga, a 21-year-old disc jockey.

Throughout the world, those championing condom use often come under fire, especially when they are public personalities like US Secretary of State Colin Powell, who recently told a questioner on an MTV forum that he favoured condom use to prevent the transmission of disease.

The president of the conservative Family Research Council, based in Washington DC, called Powell's remarks "reckless and irresponsible".

Kenyan President Daniel arap Moi (78) admitted last year that talking about such private matters embarrassed him. He suggested that Kenyans abstain from sexual activity "for two years" if they wanted to avoid contracting Aids.

Trustworthy condoms

Unlike neighbouring Uganda, where an intense public campaign has made inroads into the Aids epidemic, there is little public evidence in Kenya that anyone is fighting Aids.

Thus began the aggressive ad campaign for Trust condoms.

In the TV ad, a young woman sitting at a train station is staring at an attractive young stranger who has just removed his shirt to cool off. She drops her plastic water bottle as he approaches.

As she and her girlfriend lick their lips, the young man with dreadlocks picks up the bottle, pulls a condom out of his jeans' pocket, slips it over the bottle and hands it to her with a smile.

"Life is good with Trust condoms" flashes across the TV screen in Kiswahili, the lingua franca of Kenya.

Burnt by religious groups

Until the Trust ad campaign, condoms had been most visible in Nairobi when they were being burned by various religious groups, including the Roman Catholic church.

But the American organisation, Catholics For A Free Choice, recently placed ads, albeit less explicit ones, in Kenyan newspapers. They read: "Catholic people care. Do our bishops? Banning condoms kills."

Bernard Waithaka of Population Services International, the manufacturers of Trust condoms, said the TV ads target the 20 to 24 age group which is most at risk from HIV which causes Aids. He said their research showed that 70 percent of the target group was either already infected or at high risk.

Must be tackled

"We think the epidemic has reached a stage where it should be tackled head-on," Waithaka said. "Those against the advertisement are the same people who are against sex education in schools." The 1999 census indicates that 60 percent of Kenya's 30 million people are under 25.

"The (ad) shows that condoms are not easy to tear and are flexible," Waithaka said. "We also show that they're waterproof, contrary to stories saying they have pores."

Purity Wanjiku, a 30-year-old secretary, said the TV ad should have been limited to movie theatres that were frequented mostly by young people who understood it.

But 18-year-old high school student Benson Waweru is full of praise.

"Some people, especially those experimenting, do not know how to use it," he said. "It's good to show the reality ... that we have to use a condom."

- SAPA