Safe-Coitus Interruptus

Quite the puritanical stance. I'll have to take note if Fox and CBS run ads for K-Y warming lotion. Do they actually think we'll believe that adults arching eyebrows at each other are interested in smearing K-Y on each other's sore back muscles? Foreplay: good. Contraception: bad. What a country!

The K-Y ads, by the way, creep me out endlessly.

Also, saying that sex = risk of death, OK; saying that sex = risk of making babies, no good.

I'd like to agree with you here, but I'm for the banishment of all commercials for condoms, Viagra, "personal lubricants", tampons, Girls Gone Wild videos, Vagisil and anything else that would be embarrassing for a 12-year-old watching TV with Mom and Dad.

Embarrasing to watch with Mom and Dad? Maybe, but many a mom and dad are also TOO EMBARRASED to discuss what exactly these products are to the 12 year old or 15 year old, or 18 year old.

I say these commercials while not what I love to see on TV could be seen as a "teachable moment" -a parenting moment to capitalize on with the aid of a commercial. As long as the models for the commercials look like "adults".

This coming from a me, who used to be embarrased to watch Three's Company with my family....

Commericals are geared toward the demographic watching the show. If a 12 year old is watching a show with Viagra and Girls Gone Wild ads, then perhaps he or she shouldn't be watching the show, with or without mom and dad. Just a thought.

As David Cronenberg once said, there must be room in the world for adult content in TV shows and movies. Not everything--including commericals--has to be kid-friendly.

But what's wrong with a tampon ad geared to 12 year old girl? Seems that is exactly the person advertisers want to be aware of their product.

Right before I moved to Denmark, I remember an ad campaign in the states for some sort of Alka-Seltzer product that was clearly designed to help get rid of a hangover. The ads couldn't say that, though, so they showed a little tie-wearing animated guy struggling through work with a voice-over saying "Having a rough morning?"
If a hangover is too controversial for the networks, condoms don't stand a chance.

On a personal note, I never saw ads for condoms growing up, and the only safe-sex messages I got were from the 'safe sex' scene in The Naked Gun. I seriously thought that's how condoms worked until I was like 15...

I say everyone should have more sex, but be smart and avoid STDs and unwanted babies. I believe it would be a happier more peaceful world then. The religious forces that fight this are so sad and backward. Maybe someday humans will evolve past religion and truely become all they can be.

"It all seems odd, since while I realize birth control is still a controversial subject, I can't imagine it's that much more controversial than premarital sex, which neither network has any problem depicting nowadays."

Two-birds-with-one-stone solution: Fox and CBS can replace all the air time during which the condom ads would have shown with "A Diamond is Forever" Debeers commericals.

This reminds me of a hilarious banned birth control commercial on youtube. - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nojWJ6-XmeQ

"I say everyone should have more sex, but be smart and avoid STDs and unwanted babies."

Why?

By the time I received any kind of sexual education other than “abstinence is the only answer” at the age of sixteen, the majority of my friends had already broken that vow – and wow, big surprise, without any protection. Taking away condom commercials will not stop kids from having sex. In fact, I think it is an ingenious idea to make condom use a little sexier, so that perhaps people will be a little more apt to protect themselves. The idea that “pulling out” – ahem – the condom commercials from T.V. will do any kind of good for the audience is completely ludicrous. It reminds me very much of the pro-life protesters I walk by everyday on my way to school outside of the Planned Parenthood who rant and rave about the immorality of abortion and try to guilt-trip the men and women entering the clinic. If these protesters did any kind of research, they would realize that abortion services at Planned Parenthood made up only 3% of total services in 2005 (see link). In fact, much more important work like sexual education and contraception make up the majority of their work. Censorship will only lead to further ignorance in this country.
http://www.plannedparenthood.org/about-us/who-we-are/pp-services-5552.htm