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Have you downloaded the condom ringtone?

Munira Chendvankar
Thursday, August 14, 2008 18:34 IST
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Condoms are out of the proverbial closet, and coming to a cell phone near you, thanks to an initiative by the BBC World Service Trust

It makes teenagers blush, just asking for it, and parents hate talking about it, even though they may have used it themselves. But with an initiative by BBC World Service Trust, condoms are no more going to be relegated to hushed tones.

They are now going to speak out and speak proud as ringtones on more than 30,000 mobile phones across the country. Tens of thousands of Indians have registered for the Condom A Capella ringtone initiative started by the Trust.

So, as soon as one downloads the tone, a young man melodiously croons the word condom in high and low pitches more than 50 times.

As youngsters spend most of their day upgrading their cell phone's style quotient with ringtones, wallpapers etc, a ringtone initiative seems perfect to promote the social message of safe sex. As creative director of the BBC World Service Trust, Radharani Mitra, explains, "Today ringtones are more of a personal statement for the youth than anything else. So why not have a specially-created condom ringtone, which would define its user as a sensible person?"

This ad, produced by the Trust and funded by a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, aims to remove any kind of negative association with the word 'condom'. Thus, when a person downloads the tone, it directly indicates that he is a socially conscious person who knows his responsibilities.

A number of men, and women, across the country have already shown support for the campaign by loading the tone onto their phones.

So don't be shocked if see a little thing vibrating in someone's pocket and belting out the word condom on the local train or in the office, it's just his or her social conscience. So when are you downloading it?

To download, SMS Condom to 5676787 or log onto www.condomcondom.org

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