Wait, Condoms are for Sex?

Sigh. Some days I can only laugh at how ridiculous this country can be.

Case in point: Yesterday, Fox and CBS announced that they would not be airing a new Trojan condom commercial. Why? Well, because the ad is about sex. Huh?

Here’s the deal: Trojan’s new ad campaign — Evolve — features the tagline: “evolve. Use a condom every time.” The website proclaims: “America is not a sexually healthy nation.” The first TV commercial (the one that CBS and FOX rejected) features a beautiful blond woman in a bar (duh). She keeps getting picked up by pigs (actual, behooved members of the porcine family), who turn magically into handsome young men upon buying a condom in the bathroom (watch it here). Sounds strange but overall pretty tame, right?

But not to FOX, which released a statement that included this gem (via Feministing): “contraceptive advertising must stress health-related uses rather than the prevention of pregnancy.” Isn’t preventing pregnancy health-related? And what the hell is so bad about advertising pregnancy prevention? Especially in a country where about 50% of pregnancies are unintended? And where unintended pregnancies lead to one of the highest abortion rates in the west? Oh, and where we use sex to sell everything from perfume to cars to televisions. Not to mention erectile dysfunction drugs. But not condoms. Heaven forbid.

It’s nonsensical. And when compared to the contraception ads that air in Catholic countries like some in South America, it’s just plain old ridiculous.

Remember, in the U.S., sex only sells when you’re selling something that has nothing to do with sex.

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Want to do something about this? Send a letter to CBS chief Les Moonves and Fox President Peter Ligouri here.