Earlier this week, our friendly neighbourhood condom company, Durex, was back with a bang (‘baing-an’ to be precise) as they introduced a new ‘Brinjal’ or ‘Eggplant’ flavoured condom in the market.
#BreakingNews: We’re launching an exciting new savoury #condom range – Eggplant flavour! 🍆 #CondomEmoji pic.twitter.com/idA07EaiXC
— Durex Global (@durex) September 5, 2016
And, as expected, the Internet totally lost its shit.
@durex Can’t wait for the food bloggers’ reviews.
— Stephendra Kulbrat (@stephenkulbrat) September 5, 2016
@durex Please Make Onion & Garlic Flavour Also , We Jains Eager To Wear it 🙂
— Jain Billa 😻 (@kalia_987) September 5, 2016
It’s only ironic to introduce this flavour because eventually what Durex is meant to do is to avoid planting the egg.
— N (@ennwhee) September 5, 2016
“beta, gas khatam ho gayi, roti ke saath thode baingan wale condom chaba lo” https://t.co/q36C90ZDLY
— Shibesh (@lordoftheshibs) September 5, 2016
Baingan flavoured condoms so good girls can remember mummy and stop the blowjob right there.
— NumbYaar (@NumbYaar) September 5, 2016
.@durex giving her more reasons to say ‘No’.
— Sand-d Singh (@Sand_In_Deed) September 5, 2016
With various punners and humour mills going berserk, the Brinjal condom got the overwhelming publicity it intended. Of course, by deviating from classics like chocolate, strawberry, coffee, and so on, Durex did, in fact, intend to make a statement, and this strange savoury flavour was their best bet to get the message across.
Last year, Durex released the results of a study conducted on 18-25–year-olds, and they stated that the age group was fully comfortable using food innuendo in the form of emoji to talk openly about sex online.
According to the study, “80% of 18-25 year olds find it easier to express themselves using emojis, and more than half of the respondents regularly prefer using emojis when discussing sex. 84% of 18-25-year-olds said they feel more comfortable talking about sex using emojis. More than one-third of 18-25-year-olds claim not to care about safe sex, and nearly half think that HIV will never affect them or their friends.”
The study results, which clearly stated that while sex was getting its fair share of dialogue, showed that safe sex was nowhere in the picture. This lead Durex to urge tech companies to include a condom emoji in messaging platforms, so as to encourage this practice. Unfortunately, while the campaign did take off, the condom emoji never reached our screens, and Durex had to think of other ways to promote safe sex among the texting generation.
Phalic vegetables and fruits such as bananas, peaches, tomatoes, etc. have often been used to denote sexual innuendo. And the eggplant has become one of the most recognisable symbols for the penis. Catching on to this symbolism, and making the most of the sexting mania, Durex decided to merge the two symbols using the brinjal to represent safe sex instead.
Now that baingan has captured public imagination, we’re hoping safe sex gets the dialogue it deserves, and a much needed emoji for representation in messaging platforms.
Hopefully, this campaign proves to be Baing-on!
