Coffee Condoms
September 16th, 2009Coffee Condoms
Start Your Morning Right
In a recent study performed in Ethiopia, close to a million people were tested for HIV. Of those million subjects, over seven percent tested positive for HIV. As grim as these statistics may sound, consider this: the previous year’s study found over five percent of the subjects tested positive for HIV. That is a 26% increase within one year. In a country where the HIV/AIDS epidemic is at an all-time high and is home to ten percent of our world’s HIV cases, there is a mad scramble to promote anything that will slow the sweeping epidemic.
In September 2007, the marketing group DKT-Ethiopia responded with an ambitious and unconventional campaign to promote safe sex: condoms tinged with the flavor of coffee. After all, there is a long-held theory that the country invented coffee, so why not market on that history to the benefit of hundreds of thousands? Upon their release, in one week approximately 300,000 of these coffee-flavored condoms were sold to the masses. Each pack contains three condoms and costs about one Ethiopian birr or eleven cents, less expensive than other condoms being marketed in Ethiopia.
These coffee condoms not only smell the part, they also look the part with their deep brown color. DKT-Ethiopia was meticulous in their research, even creating the new condoms to taste like the Ethiopian coffee of choice: the macchiato. The macchiato preferred in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, is usually made with a shot of espresso and liberal amounts of sugar and milk. DKT initiated this campaign as a response to condom-user complaints that the latex scent of regular condoms was overpowering. This spurred the launch of these coffee condoms in Ethiopia as well as other regional-specific flavors in other parts of the world.
With government estimates reporting 7 out of every 100 people in Addis Ababa being infected with AIDS, this campaign couldn’t have come at a better time. The director of DKT-Ethiopia, Andrew Piller, has given his assurance that his worldwide social marketing organization is not in the business of making money, but rather ensuring that those who use condoms feel more comfortable wearing them so that they continue to responsibly practice safe sex.
DKT’s social marketing techniques revolve around marketing and providing condoms in those areas where sexual promiscuity is highest, like motels and bars. However, despite DKT’s movement to offer condoms at a reasonable price in order to promote safe sex and stop the sweeping AIDS epidemic, the company is not without its critics. Despite outside appearances, Ethiopia is a very conservative country and its orthodox church feels it is improper to promote condoms, especially condoms that take a custom like coffee and make it sexual in nature. Instead, they feel it is more appropriate and more impacting to encourage abstinence.
In a country that is riddled with sexual violence and unsafe sex practices, it is an understatement to say that Ethiopia is in dire need of drastic measures. With a 2.1% AIDS rate that is on an upward path, this country can only benefit from the promotion of safe sex, java-flavored or not.
For Your Princess
December 3rd, 2008For Your Princess
Or Your Whore…
Still looking for that perfect gift to give to your special girlfriend, wife, daughter, or mother?
You might consider the gift that keeps on giving – a gift certificate for Planned Parenthood. No, as a matter of fact, this isn’t a joke.
Available in $25 increments, Planned Parenthood has been offering the gift certificates since Novermber 25th. The full story is here if you want to add them to your list.
What next?
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Swedish Girls
May 30th, 2008Swedish Girls
Girls Just Wanna Have Fun
I’m really beginning to believe that Sweden is the most underrated country in the world. Sure, we think about them every once in a awhile, and they do make really great candy fish, but there’s so much more to this fine little country.
For example, this random article from The Local:
Swedish Teen Girls Have More Sex With One Another
Published: 30 May 08 06:44 CET
Online: http://www.thelocal.se/12120/More teenage girls than boys have had sex with someone of the same gender, according to a new dissertation from the Sahlgrenska Academy in Gothenburg.
The result comes as no surprise to the researcher, midwife Gun Rembeck, who works at the primary care clinic in southern Älvsborg.
“I work at the youth health centre and asked the staff there what they thought before I told them about the results. They answered right away that there are more girls,” she said.
Altogether 440 girls and boys aged 17 were questioned for the study.
“It was 6.1 percent of the girls who answered that they had had sex with someone of the same gender, while 1.7 percent of boys said the same thing,” Rembeck explained.
No one is quite sure why the answers are so different between the sexes.
“It may be that girls feel their way forward without identifying themselves as either homo- or heterosexual,” said Rembeck.
She thinks that girls are also more inclined to experiment than boys.
“There is less of a taboo for girls. During their teenage years girls are often a bit more intimate with each other in their own way. Boys are often more worried, afraid to diverge, and the expressed norm is to not be homosexual,” Rembeck said.
The study also found that somewhat more girls than boys had also made their sexual debuts.
“It’s possible that girls who know they are oriented toward homosexuality have become sexually active earlier than boys,” she added.
Every once in a while you read something that prompts you to re-evaluate your life, your job, your home, and your choice of country.
My first thoughts are – I need to check on Swedish real estate. Certainly I could find a job over there pretty easily. Maybe at a high school or something…
Now, don’t get me wrong – America is a great country. I’m very proud of the United States, if not necesarilly proud of our politics or politicians. But, this is indeed the land of opportunity and for the most part, Americans really are only limited by their imaginations. Every American citizen has the opportunity and equality to persue their dreams.
What America is missing, however, are Swedish teen girls having sex with one another.
Oh, sure, we may have “teen girls having sex with one another” here on our continent. But, we don’t have Swedish teen girls having sex with one another here.
Or, at least, not nearly enough of them.
Possibly instead of wasting time, money, and lives in Iraq, we should invade Sweden. I can’t imagine they would put up much of a fight. I suppose some of the Swedish women would challenge us to a Jello wrestling match, but I’m sure there would be no shortage of American citizens signing up to join our all-volunteer military, ready to wrestle for freedom.
Heck, I’ll be the first in line to help liberate the Swedish girls.
In fact, maybe I’ll create the Blog About Nothing Army (BANA?) and begin organizing for the inevitable invasion immediately.
Any volunteers want to sign up?
And remember, it’s not just about hot, horny, Swedish girls… There’s also the unlimited supply of little, red, chewy, candy fish.
A few more reminders of the poor souls that we need to liberate:
Yeah, the sign-up sheet is in the comments section…
