Trojan, the condom maker, is launching a new ad campaign for its prophylactics this week, but on Fox and CBS, it appears the advertiser is instead going to have to, um, pull out. The New York Times reports this morning that the two networks rejected the condom ads, which will run on ABC, NBC and several cable networks. Explaining the decision, a Fox spokesperson told the Times that you could advertise contraceptives on the network as long as you weren’t advertising their use for, you know, contraception: “Contraceptive advertising must stress health-related uses rather than the prevention of pregnancy.â€
(Incidentally: so pregnancy is not a health-related issue? Can I take a wild guess that a man made that call?)
There’s a little irony here, not least because Fox and CBS have spent the last few years battling the FCC over their ability to air sexual content in prime time. But while you can turn on CBS any given week later this summer and see roomies getting busy on Big Brother, it is somehow inappropriate to pay good money to advertise a means of avoiding ending up with Little Offspring.
It all seems odd, since while I realize birth control is still a controversial subject, I can’t imagine it’s that much more controversial than premarital sex, which neither network has any problem depicting nowadays. If nothing else, it’s less controversial than abortion, and to paraphrase the political catchphrase, contraception is big part of making abortions rare–as rare, apparently, as network common sense.
