When can a brand claim ad campaign success before it actually sees any increase in sales? When CBS and Fox reject the ads, that's when. The Trojan brand recently launched a new television ad campaign that centers on bar-sitting pigs (yes -- the ugly, pinkish, farm kind) with cellphones who transform into hot guys when they think to buy a condom in hopes of a sexual encounter. The ad is getting a lot of media buzz in addition to its paid-for airplay on all the other networks the brand approached.
Developed by Kaplan Thaler Group, Trojan's "Evolve" campaign caught my attention, first and foremost, because it is a new way of selling condoms: using a more masculine-humor that isn't sleazy or pseudo-romantic to tell it like it is (people will meet in bars and sometimes this will result in sex -- it's a fact, Jack). This should work very well for both men and women in the target demographic (sexually active young adults between the ages of 18 and 34). While older people may or may not get the humor or respond to the situation depicted in the campaign, marketing is all about being extremely relevant to the product/service's core consumer. Trojan seems to have done that extremely well with this effort -- in tone, content and imagery.
Now, we can all admit that marketing such a product has got to be tough. Though the existence of condoms could easily be considered a public service for all the disease and unwanted pregnancies they help prevent, consumers still look both ways before grabbing a box in the grocery store's pharmacy aisle. As quoted in a MediaPost article, the brand's vice president of marketing, Jim Daniels, says the purpose is "to address the United States' standing as leading the western world in unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections."
Any approach that gets people thinking more responsibly about having sex should be lauded then, right?
In Robin Hood Marketing, author Katya Andresen points out that good causes need to offer rewards for action that are immediate and relevant to the audience because most people are not motivated by morality. I think her ideas can be applied in this more commercial case, as well. Like it or not, the most immediate reward for condom usage is pregnancy prevention (disease prevention is not an immediate reward per se, but a side effect). CBS and Fox can certainly hope, but their policies actually can't control the reasons for which people will use condoms (i.e. disease prevention, OK; pregnancy prevention, not, OK). By making news in refusing these ads, the two networks have pretty much guaranteed that Trojan's young adult market will pay ever-more attention to "Evolve," and for their very own reasons.