Condom ads were banned in mainstream media, until too many people were dying of AIDS

Relaxing outdated standards in the name of public health

The sound of a ticking clock permeates a dark room. A group of people lowers down from the ceiling like bowling pins, through a layer of thick mist. The grim reaper, shrouded in black, growls.

“At first, only gays and IV drug users were being killed by AIDS,” says the narrator. “But now we know every one of us could be devastated by it.”

Death pulls back his arm and pitches a bowling ball toward the people. A blonde girl in pigtails winces in horror. Everyone is frozen in place, paralyzed. The heavy ball topples them into the mist. The pinsetter clears the entire bunch away, into the deep, dark depths.

“If you have sex, have just one safe partner. Or always use condoms. Always.”

By 1987, the year this ad aired, AIDS had claimed more than 48,000 American lives. By the time the epidemic peaked in the mid-1990s, more than a quarter of a million people in the US would contract the disease.

In the early 1980s, outreach came in the form of public service announcements about which populations were most vulnerable and how the disease spread. The message was largely “abstinence or else,” but such ads did little to teach prevention. And people were still having sex.

Then condom ads shook the foundations of traditional media. Newspapers and networks that had previously banned condom ads relaxed their policies. The move was controversial, but its message was clear: Safe sex will help end AIDS.

In a December 19, 1986 memo, The New York Times announced it would reexamine its ban on prophylactic and contraceptive ads because of “the threat posed by the AIDS epidemic.’’ In the back of the February 15, 1987 Sunday magazine, the paper ran an ad from DKT International, a company that sold brand-name condoms. To not offend readers opposed to birth control and keep the ads about disease prevention, the Times insisted that DKT change the verbiage “contraceptives by mail” to “condoms by mail.”

Magazines like U.S. News & World Report, Time, Life, Sports Illustrated, Fortune, and People also began to run condom ads. Newsweek ran a full-page ad for LifeStyles condoms at the back of its January 26 issue.

Even television relaxed its policies. In January 1987, KRON-TV, an NBC network affiliate in San Francisco, became the first major-market station to air condom commercials. Others followed suit.

Many conservative viewers were outraged, claiming that condom ads promoted a laissez-faire approach to sex. “As a birth-control device, such ads are offensive to segments of our audience on moral or religious grounds,” said NBC Vice President for Broadcast Standards Ralph Daniels, in testimony. “Other viewers believe that condom advertising in any context inherently delivers a message about sexual permissiveness which they find objectionable…A broadcast network or local station cannot ignore the fact that condoms are also contraceptive devices.”

Networks pulled the ads, unwilling to make the call between dangerous health concerns and simple birth control. Or they simply aired them late at night.

Democratic California Congressman Henry Waxman was adamant in condemning the move. “The routine promotion of condoms through network advertising has been stopped by networks who are so hypocritically priggish that they refuse to describe disease control as they promote disease transmission,” he said in a hearing. “While portraying thousands of sexual encounters each year in programming…television is unwilling to give the life-saving information about safe sex and condoms.”

The following year, however, CBS, ABC, and even NBC agreed to broadcast a broad campaign encouraging condom use as a method of AIDS prevention. Coordinated by the Advertising Council, the ad industry’s public service arm, the campaign included radio spots, print ads, transit ads, and four television commercials. It was the first national advertising campaign aimed solely at promoting condom use.

Condom sales increased 40% between 1986 and 1987, but experts argued that growth rate wasn’t fast enough to outrun the rapid spread of AIDS.

They switched tactics. Dry PSAs informed, and grim reaper ads terrified, but the stigma around condom use was still a concern. In order to get people to use condoms, advertising had to appeal to their humanity, individual sexuality, and even romance. Using a condom was not just preventing disease; it was an act of love.

In a 1987 TV ad for LifeStyles condoms, for instance, a woman says, “I’ll do a lot for love, but I’m not ready to die for it.” A 1988 spot has a man in a black cape and mask approaching a sales counter. “Hi, Phantom,’’ the clerk says. “Taking a date to the opera?’’ “Yes,’’ he answers, “and I need LifeStyles.’’ The woman replies, “But you didn’t have to wear that mask to ask for them.’’

“We’re out to make buying a condom less embarrassing,’’ said John H. Silverman, president of LifeStyles’ parent company, Ansell-Americas.

By 1990, more than one-third of American radio and television stations accepted condom advertising, whether there was an emphasis on public health or not. In one of the LifeStyles commercials, Robin Hood grabs some condoms from a drugstore — for himself and, he winks, “for all my merry men.’’