D.C. Public Schools students are finicky about their choice of condoms, according to a new study.
The Youth Sexual Health Project was given a task of finding out if D.C. students thought the District's sex ed curriculum was out of touch with today's youth.
The answer to that question was yes, but what also was revealed was the lack of trust students have in the free condoms distributed at schools. And that, in turn, seems to lead to an overall lack of condom use.
"Despite an awareness of the risks associated with unprotected sex, many youth report not using condoms. While some students report accessing the free school-based condom availability program, overall awareness and utilization of the program is limited. In addition, youth have strong opinions about particular condom brands."
So what kinds of condoms would they be willing to use? Good question. One of the questions asked in the student survey was about Web sites. While condom Web sites were not visited often by the students, they did show which brand they favor -- Trojan.
"When asked whether they would use the information from the condom websites presented, almost half of surveyed youth indicated that they would use the information from the Trojan website."
What can we take from all of this? Branding is key in the battle against STDs. And Trojan could earn great public relations points in the D.C. metro area if it formed a partnership with local schools. School districts make deals with certain product brands all the time (Coke, Pepsi, Nike and Adidas come to mind), so why not strike a deal with a condom company? It's good for the company, and apparently it would be good in the fight against AIDS and teen pregnancy among the District's youth.
