The Trojan War Pig

The New York Times  reports today on the controversy over the new TV ad campaign for Trojan condoms:

In the commercial, women in a bar find themselves sitting next to pigs, one of which metamorphoses into a handsome suitor after it procures a condom from a vending machine.   The tag line: “Evolve.   Use a condom every time.”

According to the Times article, local TV stations in Pittsburgh have refused to show the ad. You can view the ad for yourself at the trojanevolve website.  

In response to criticism over the ads, Trojan responds to what it perceives as the hypocrisy of some programmers:

[W]e promote ideology over information:such as when we deny people comprehensive sex education in favor of”abstinence-only”programs even though government studies show they don’t work.   (1) Our television networks regularly put sexual content in prime-time programming, (2) but restrict or even forbid ads for condoms during those very shows.  

Messages about sexual responsibility should get their airtime, no doubt.   But is there even a scintilla of a possibility that the networks are objecting to something other than the advertisement of condoms per se?   Maybe they don’t like the (subtle?) suggestion that (a) men are like pigs (or at least men who don’t use condoms are like pigs), or that (b) women have sex with pigs (or at least men who don’t use condoms are like pigs)?    

-Bridget Crawford