First came Madonna’s steamy smooch with Britney Spears, then Janet Jackson ignited fury by baring a breast. Now new battlelines are being drawn up in America’s culture wars — over TV condom ads.
”Condoms are the line in the sand,” said Randy Sharp of the American Family Association (AFA), which is behind a mass e-mail campaign to safeguard one of television’s last taboos.
Sickened by an on-screen barrage of sexy images and impotence drug commercials, ”family values” activists leapt into action following reports a major condom manufacturer was eyeing prime-time advertising slots.
Previous complaints targeted saucy dramas like Desperate Housewives, Jackson’s infamous ”wardrobe malfunction” during the 2004 Superbowl and risque advertising by the likes of Paris Hilton, at the centre of a new storm on Wednesday over a racy spot for a burger chain.
Campaigners are flexing muscles, which the pundits say, helped send George Bush back to the White House last year on a tide of moral outrage.
”We believe the networks don’t care about the viewer any more by virtue of them getting seedier and seedier in the content they broadcast,” said Sharp from his Tupelo, Mississippi office.
AFA deluged networks with 200 000 e-mails from parents and is now pressuring members of Congress to keep condom adverts off network
television.
”We oppose condom ads because they promote promiscuity,” said Sharp.
”The American Family Association has always leaned toward traditional family values that sex should be kept within the marriage bed.”
Some TV stations, especially on cable, permit some limited condom advertising, but only late at night when children are presumed to be asleep. Condom adverts do often appear in magazines which appeal to young adults.
Family planning groups argue such ads could help reduce teen pregnancies and check the spread of sexually transmitted diseases including HIV/Aids.
Michael McGee, vice president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America said: ”the more we can normalise conversations about healthy sexuality and safer sex, the better off we are as a society”.
While condom manufactuers should recognise decency standards, it would be wrong to confine advertising to a purely public health style message, he said.
”I do think it is appropriate to have messages in the family hour as long as it is with the recognition of who’s watching and its appropriate.”
”If they can use sexy images to sell sneakers and soft drinks, it certainly makes sense for them to use that when they are selling condoms,” McGee said.
The latest furore was sparked by reports in the advertising trade press, and the New York Post that speciality products firm Church and Dwight, wanted to place ads for its ”Trojan” brand on network television.
NBC is considering the request, a spokesperson said, stressing the proposed campaign highlighted the health benefits of using condoms, and did not resort to titillation.
CBS said the network did not have a policy on condom ads, and that any such spots were considered on an individual basis. Fox executives declined to comment on contacts with clients, and ABC could not be reached for comment.
Church and Dwight did not respond to calls.
Rising debate over television decency has been fanned by a string of incidents over the last two years.
In 2003, pop diva Madonna gave proteges Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera an open mouth kiss at the MTV music awards.
Then came Jackson’s wardrobe malfunction, and this year an advert during an NFL football game showed a star of Desperate Housewives from behind as she dropped a towel in front of a player in a dressing room.
U2 star Bono narrowly escaped a mouthwash from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for using the F-word during the Golden Globes awards, while another storm surrounded supposed homosexual imagery in shows featuring animated children’s character SpongeBob SquarePants.
Late last year, 60 ABC stations pulled a showing of Steven Spielburg’s epic Saving Private Ryan worried that the use of swear words by actors playing wounded D-Day soldiers could fall foul of FCC language rules. – Sapa-AFP