New York City is known for taking branding to a whole new level and this recent condom campaign is no exception. You certainly would never see the boldness of such a campaign even get off the ground in the Bible Belt, let alone get suggested.

The details …

Associated Press reports (and I read it in the Wash Times, heheh) that there will soon be available from city hall “an official New York condom” perhaps in a “jazzy wrapper, with a colourful subway map.”

The reasoning? “Brands work, and people use branded items more than they use non-branded items, whether it’s a cola or a medicine, even,” New York Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden said.

For a city that hands out 1.5 million free condoms each month in ordinary packaging, has more than 100,000 of its citizens infected with HIV or AIDS, and has AIDS as the third leading cause of death among New Yorkers under 65… this may just be an interesting move to get say 5 to 5,000 to [hopefully] 500,000 more people to crack open the wrapper.

Behavior is hard to shift, alter, influence, CHANGE. Especially sexual behavior. But more power to them.

Tags: branding, health, leslie post, nyc, sex