“Roses are red, violets are wild, cover up, boy,
and you won't have a child!”
Over 1,000 entries, including that one, are vying to “Be the Poe of Prophylactics” in a One Condoms poetry contest.
A
three-month-long entry period just concluded. Judges will come up with 50 finalists, and the public will be invited to vote for their favorites in November, with winners to be announced in February to
honor National Condom Month.
Protection and safe sex was “the most dominant theme” of the poems, according to the brand.
Other popular themes included pleasure/romance, pop
culture/literary references, and humor: “puns and wordplay around sex, condoms, and the One brand.”
One Condoms itself has laid on the puns in its come-ons for the contest, via
such taglines as “Let Loose Your Longfellow,” “Go Wilde,” Thoreau Down,” “Protect Your Dickinson” and “Be the Cocteau of Condoms.”
advertisement
advertisement
Milla Impola, director of marketing and communications for One Condoms’ parent Global Protection, tells Pharma and Health Insider that promotion for the
contest included emails, social media, outreach through its loyalty program and college ambassador program, spreading the word at conferences and via public health partnership organization. Then there
was a partnership with The Poetry Brothel, which holds cabarets in New York and other cities; street stickers, and a “network of influencers, brand friends, sexual health advocates, bands and more.”
One’s influencers include professional
poets Jake Tringali and Isabella J. Mansfield and novelist Elle Nash, all three of whom are also serving as contest judges to help weed out entries before the public votes for 10 winners on Instagram.
The winners will receive a cash prize ($1,000 for first place, $500 for second place and $300 for eight runners-up); a year’s supply (365) of condoms with their winning poem printed on
the brand’s signature round wrappers; and a donation of condoms (from 1,000 to 5,000) to a sexual health organization or nonprofit of their choice.
The winning poems will also become
part of an updated wrapper collection for One’s Vanish Hyperthin condom style. To fit on the wrapper, all entries were limited to 300 characters max.
Making statements with its wrappers
is nothing new for the brand, which back in 2009-2010 ran a precursor contest that sought the “Rembrandt of Rubber.”
The poetry contest is part of One Condoms’ larger
“The Art of ONE” umbrella, which Impolla says “encompasses all the ways we incorporate design and creativity into our outreach programs, marketing efforts, and packaging
concepts…from graphic designers to graffiti artists and painters.”
She says that the initiative turns One Condoms wrappers “into tiny works of
art.”
As for the “Poe of Prophylactics,” “We hope you chuckle a bit and then want to share it,” she says. “Instead of taboos and stigma, we want condom
convos and spicy stanzas.”
So we’ll share the following contest entries:
“Come as you are
The dress code calls for fun.
Don’t
care what you wear
As long as we got One!”
"Are we on Round 3 or Round 4?
Remember to go lock the door!
Cause this couch is so
comfy…
And we’re feeling quite cuddly…
But my roommate’s come home early before!"