Condom Ads Coming To Newspapers?

By: Mark Fitzgerald One of the oddities of gay newspapers is that while their news and feature stories repeatedly stress the importance of condoms for safe sex, they never run any condom ads. Condom manufacturers have rebuffed every overture, often claiming they just don't have the budget to advertise in gay papers, said Todd Evans, president and CEO of the Rivendell Marketing Co., a media rep firm used by more than 200 local gay and lesbian newspapers and publications.

"It just makes no sense because since the early 1980s, the biggest users of condoms has been the gay market," said William Waybourn, president of Window Media LLC, which publishes The Washington (D.C.) Blade and four other gay newspapers.

Now, at long last, the biggest condom brand has committed to an ad schedule in two national gay magazines, Michael Wilke reported in his online column on gay advertising, "The Commercial Closet." Trojan, which has some 68% share of the condom market, is advertising its Trojan Personal Lubricant in The Advocate and Out magazines under the theme "Slipperier when wet."

Tracy Baim, publisher of the Windy City Times weekly in Chicago, said she is hopeful the national ads will trickle down to local papers: "Here it is 2002 and gay papers have IBM and major banks as advertisers -- all these conservative institutions have hit the gay market before the condom companies."