Female condom gets a makeover

Botswana's government has turned to advertising and marketing to give the usually unpopular female condom more prominence in its fight against HIV/AIDS.

Officially relaunched as 'Bliss' by a local creative and marketing firm, the new name and packaging are expected to encourage more women to make use of it.

"The earlier product's packaging was dull and did not stand out much, so we decided to use brighter colours and a sexy name. The sexual connotations implied by the name already piques the attention of both men and women," Derick Muchena, an art director at the company responsible for rebranding the condom, told PlusNews.

Botswana has made notable strides against AIDS by providing free antiretroviral (ARV) drugs to 85 percent of HIV-positive patients, but the poor uptake of the female condom and power imbalances between men and women have hampered prevention campaigns.

Muchena said there were even reports of women wearing the rings from the condoms as bangles and discarding the remaining material.

David Ngele, national coordinator of the Botswana Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS, welcomed the "brave new approach", but expressed concern that the way in which women were often objectified by men might also work against the popularity of female condoms.

"This usually places lots of women in a shaky position if they try to initiate safe sexual intercourse with their male partners. But, hopefully, interventions like this will help change the current mindset of men and help empower women," he said.

UNAIDS has estimated that 140,000 of the Southern African nation's approximately 1.8 million people are living with the HI virus.

The Ministry of Health and the marketing agency have been distributing leaflets and posters promoting Bliss condoms, and could soon be flighting a television advertisement.

"Filming of the ad has already been completed and we very excited to be able to use such a far-reaching medium for such an important item," Muchena said.