MTV is known for debuting racy music videos and controversial reality TV shows, but their safe-sex announcements are equally titillating. Their latest campaign features a series of cartoon drawings of a flaccid penis equipped with tiny wings—sometimes wearing a hat or round spectacles. Even more edgy, the member is personified doing mundane things like watching TV or playing chess. The slogan for the campaign reads, “There’s no sex in heaven. Stay alive. Use a condom.” While we appreciate the message, the mixture of all these elements seems a bit bizarre. What other advertisements have controversial or confusing messages? Take a look at the strangest ads promoting safe sex.
This ad features a series of cherished American possessions (a car, a house, a family pet) all fiting inside a condom, with the slogan, “Protect your valuables.” While the message is clear, we can’t be the only ones who find seeing a chihuahua encompassed in pink rubber a tad disturbing.
Remember the 2007 horror film Teeth, where the teen girl who happens to have teeth attached to her lady bits? Yeah, that movie. This ad for safe sex featuring a man doing missionary with a scorpion reminds us of just that—sorry for the mental image.
This campaign features a series of ads that, after asking the question, What do you take to bed?, offers three options One ad illustrates the choice between a squash (no) and a zucchini (maybe). Another (possibly racist) ad showcases two sex toys: one black, large toy (no) and one light, smaller toy (maybe). The condom, which is shown in each ad, is always a yes.
This extremely blatant and descriptive ad tells it like it is: You’ll feel like you’re peeing razor blades. Commence gagging and cringing faces. The Australian STI awareness campaign featured other slogans such as, “Chlamydia. Guys can get it, too.” As well as, “An STI could stop you from having a baby.”
What if your pubic hair was comprised of the names of all the people you’ve slept with. Some people would be pretty hairy. This absurd idea is brought to life by an MTV ad that depicts just that, with a close-up crotch shot of a man adorned with the names of his former lovers. “Naomi, Suzi, Noelle …” like tiny little reminders of his past. The campaign slogan is equally permanent, “Some might stay forever.”
If they had flesh, these advertisements would be considered pornographic. Lucky for the advertisers, no sensory was needed, as this campaign features skeletons having “sex”—or whatever skeletons have–in a variety of different positions. Showing quite literally the deadly effects of unprotected sex, the prints illustrate these bones getting busy on the bed, countertop–you name it.
By far the most controversial safe-sex advertisement on our list, this series of dictator-inspired ads features Adolf Hitler in a variety of ways we’d prefer not to see him. In one ad, a school of sperm is shown with one flaunting a side-swept part and Hitleresque mustache, implying that unprotected sex is as dangerous as a an invasion from Hitler. The other extreme ad features a still image of a woman in an act of passion with her lover–yep, it’s Hitler. We’re not sure how these German-manufactured ads got past legal, but we’d prefer never to lay eyes on them again.
This cartoonish campaign gives a fantastical illustration of what sex might look like if it were all an accident. A man tripping on his roller skates onto the backside of a bending-over blonde, or a woman ripping her dress on a bicycle while simultaneously falling onto the lap of a Speedo-clad man, these ads take the term “meet cute” to the extreme.
A popular Facebook application you could apply to real humans? This Finnish social-media-savvy campaign pinpoints your sexual destination and shows you how many people have “checked-in” before you.
This vintage-inspired ad gives a whole new meaning to “don’t ask, don’t tell” when it shows three military men engaging in a steamy session of three-way glances. The caption “Safe sex is hot sex” is accompanied by the text “You are not immune. Use a condom every time,” obviously catering to a gay audience.
