Durex Thinks It's Time We Had A Condom Emoji To Help Promote Safe Sex
Peach. Eggplant. Taco. There are plenty of food emojis people can use to suggest sex, yet none to suggest safe sex. So leading sexual well-being brand Durex has launched a new campaign calling for the world's first safe sex condom emojis.
"Many young people have gained their sexual knowledge through their own sexual activity and searching the internet,” Dr. Mark McCormack, senior lecturer in sociology and co-director of the center for sex, gender, and sexualities at Durham University in the UK, said in a statement. "While participants generally felt able to discuss safe sex within their romantic relationships, there was more uncertainty with new or potential partners. Eighty percent welcomed the idea of the emoji to make the discussion of safe sex easier and more fun."
Specifically, Durex found 80 percent of 18-25 year olds find it easier to express themselves using emojis and 84 percent feel more comfortable talking about sex using emojis. But interestingly, more than one-third of this population claims not to care about safe sex and nearly half think that HIV will never affect them or their friends. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention paints a different picture: STD rates are on the rise in the U.S. for the first time since 2006.
So Durex is asking online users to show their support for safe sex emojis by sharing the above video and using the hashtag #CondomEmoji. The company will include the support it gets in its official safe sex emoji submission to the Unicode Consortium on World AIDS Day, Dec. 1.
Ultimately, said marketing director of Durex USA Karen Chisholm, a condom emoji would making talking about safe sex less embarrassing, as well as raise awareness of the important of using condoms in protecting against STDs, including HIV and AIDS. Already a study has shown singles who use emoji icons are more likely to have a better sex life — why not make that a better, safe sex life?