Gates Foundation and BBC distribute free condom ringtone

By Tim Conneally | Published August 15, 2008, 1:37 PM

Though redolent of dogs barking jingle bells, the "Condom a Capella" ringtone -- sponsored by the BBC World Service and the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation -- seeks to break social taboos regarding the prophylactic.

The ringtone (available here) is part of an ongoing campaign to prevent the transmission of HIV in India by making the discussion of condoms more socially acceptable.

Creative Director of the BBC World Service Trust India, Radharani Mitra, said, "This downloadable ringtone provides an opportunity for our audience to translate a message into an action. The idea is to tackle the inhibitions and taboos that can be associated with condoms."

Included in the media campaign have been radio and television advertisements with the slogan "Jo Samjha Wohi Sikander," which roughly translates to "He who understands, wins."

The BBC Trust has similar programs in place in Angola, Nigeria, Ethopia, and Vietnam. In Cambodia, the trust runs a commercial that depicts an anthropomorphic condom doing martial arts with Hong Kong action star Jackie Chan.

Comments

View comments by with a score of at least

Yeah companies like Condomafia actually distribute free condoms. Ringtones...Condoms? Condoms are way more effective

www.condomafia.com

Score: 0

|

They should distribute the ringtone to young Americans and stop facing only Africans and Asians.
Asians and Africans don't expose themselves to early sex like the Americans.
Let Gates and BBC start serious work from America before reaching out to the outside world.

Score: 0

|

*laughing*

Yeah, because kids here don't already know about condoms by the time they're 10 (or younger).

Think. Then post.

Score: 0

|

Do not worry about the American, we will take care of ourselves. India is doing what they can to protect their country and people from the AIDS virus. All countries have this problem, we all need to not worry about the neighbor and deal with what is going on in our own home. If there was not a AIDs problem in Africa or Asia then the need for more education would not be necessary. Hey rascojet, when you look in the mirror you only see yourself not young Americans.

Score: 0

|

Flame Proof Suit is the only sub-human here.... he needs to have HIV....

Score: 0

|

Ouch.

I wouldn't go that far....but I'm glad you did! :)

Score: 0

|

Hmm, instead of distributing condom ringtones, you'd think they'd be doing something to prevent HIV in the first place.

Like, I don't know, maybe trying to educate people about not doing drugs and helping them to get off if they're hooked.

Or perhaps to stop homosexual activity?

Look at any of the statistics and you'll see that the top two carriers/spreaders of HIV are those listed above - you may not like it, but it's the sad truth.

Instead - they're basically sanctioning this and trying to give an "out" to people to allow them to continue to live a destructive life style.

I honestly am begining to wonder if it's not really the agenda behind things like this B&M Gates foundation. By keeping these poor people in their horrible situation - they prevent them from taking making something of their lives.

It strikes brutally close to Nixon setting up policy to keep poor nations poor so that they would never compete with the US for resources.

With as many people as there are in India and China - it's no wonder that they are doing things to keep these people in the gutter - can't have them taking up resources and possibly competing with Bill and friends for the good life.

Score: 0

|

Who da fook cares! They are sub human, unless of course there is a political point to be scored, or perhaps a distro for tainted drugs.
Ah, what irony! One Georgia W Bush is opening wars on all fronts and declaring the "Sanctity of Life"!
Fook' em again, we're over populated anyway! And, if Georgia W & d***y C had any real guts, they'd be releasing some of the more esoteric little buggers from Fort Dix with a laissez faire distro, then see where the chips fall, so to speak!
Ah, one problem but, when those chinks become even more bourgeois, we'll need another serf population to manufacture our indispensables.

Score: 0

|

Stop homosexual activity?

What planet are you living on? The vast majority of HIV cases are present within the heterosexual population - the vast majority of whom are NOT drug users.

Oh and of course, heterosexuals always wear condoms except when breeding, don't they?

And let's not touch at all on the wildly rising numbers of sexually transmitted infections amongst the heterosexual population either.

The sad truth (as you put it) is that being homosexual is NOT a destructive lifestyle, nor is becoming HIV positive an eventual outcome for being so. To assume so shows nothing but your ignorance.

A fact worth remembering is that it wasn't that long ago that we - in the so-called civilised countries - were embarrassed by and avoided discussion of condoms. Anything that helps and encourages the discussion of condoms, in countries or populations not yet comfortable with them as a discussion topic should be applauded - however laughable we may find the method.

To say that some of the comments on this article disgust me would be the understatement of the year. Although it doesn't surprise me one tiny bit that there are so many bigoted twats in 2008, I just didn't expect to find them on here.

Score: 0

|

lol

Score: 0

|

billweh ,
You should deal with your homosexual tendencies and drugs issues. The later being much more a problem than the former.

Not assuming what you are shamed to be (wrongfully) makes you angry, stupid, pissed off, aggressive, prevent you to think clearly and have access to facts.

None of this would be a problem if you were not expressing yourself.

But you are.

So please seek counsel in all matter of life, you need it.

Thanks

Score: 0

|

The video should be a cartoon p**** singing "Johnny, come home"

Score: 0

|

I thought they would write a song for "Where do you want to go today?"

Score: 0

|

That's Sad

Score: 0

|

hard-rock, maybe?

Score: 0

|

Or maybe some johnny cash...

Score: 0

|

"Ring of Fire" comes to mind.

Score: 0

|

If the "Cap Fits", dummy!

Score: 0

|

Um well I dont really know what to say about this lol.

EDIT: How about the retards in India stop having 10 kids apiece.//

Score: -1

|

Oh oh! He said "retards"!

India, Angola,Nigeria, Ethopia, Vietnam,and Cambodia?

How about implementing this among the Catholic Hispanic population where the Pope actively encourages them to populate God's army!?

Score: 0

|

lol.

Anyone who has 10 kids has issues.

The current pope is a moron.

Score: 0

|

We have 2000 years of the political institution known as the Catholic Church masquerading as a religious institution.

Score: 0

|

The mind boggles.

Score: 0

|

Will Firefox beat IE9 to Direct2D rendering?

Just days after Microsoft executives gave conference attendees a peek at a new rendering technology, a Mozilla contributor revealed he's working on the same thing.

AOL's decision to rebrand as Aol. takes a bad brand and makes it worse

The idea behind the social Web is to crowd source before bringing out something new. But not at AOL, which new logo debuted with a cry of "fail!" across the blogosphere and Twittersphere today.

Microsoft's Bob Muglia and Ray Ozzie on Silverlight vs. standards

Bob Muglia: "We're trying to provide people with an environment that has capabilities that you just simply can't do today in the standards-based world."

Uh-oh, netbooks -- not Windows 7 -- will lift 2009 PC sales

Santa may bring a lump of coal to the Windows PC industry this holiday season. Netbook sales will sap PC margins, while weak Windows 7 PC sales could further drive down average selling prices.

Kindle 2 update adds battery life, native PDF reader

Amazon has pushed out an update to the Kindle 2 e-reader that lengthens battery life and adds a native PDF viewer.

Safari on iPhone gets competition from a $1 browser app

Apple likes to say it gives iPhone users a full browsing experience, but a new competitor tries to incorporate more desktop browser features.

Action Replay maker sues Microsoft for Xbox 360 'predatory technological barriers'

Third-party video game accessory maker Datel has filed an antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft over the Xbox 360's recent Dashboard update.

Where there's smoke: Apple warranty stance raises troubling questions

Carmi Levy | Wide Angle Zoom: Smoking can be dangerous not only for your lungs, it appears, but for your Apple hardware warranty.

Microsoft's .NET Micro Framework is now free and open source

The latest version of Microsoft's .NET Micro framework is now in the hands of the FOSS community.

Google's value proposition for Chrome OS: Should we feel insulted?

For a search engine that has direct access to all the world's online history, it appears to have taught Google nothing about selling a machine.

E-book readers will be in short supply this holiday season

E-readers are hot this year, and a lot of compelling new products have been released, but are there enough electrophoretic displays to go around?