GLOBAL – December 12, 2013 – Four Seasons Condoms wants you to #GetNAKED, so they showed you how in their banned from television spot.
Written and directed by Australian comedian and actor Gary Eck, the ad shows a couple purchasing condoms at a pharmacy the way one would purchase shoes – by trying them on.
The humorous and somewhat absurd ad promotes the company’s Naked range, and was banned by FreeTV Commercials Advice Department (CAD) for "sexual references," AdNews reported on December 4. “The creative was also intended to run on free-to-air TV as a 30-second ad, however CAD knocked it back asking for the removal of all sexual references,” Four Seasons founder and managing director Graham Porter said in the report.
“To connect with the younger demographic, you need to be irreverent and entertaining and to remove all sexual references in the TV ad defeats the purpose of this entire campaign. The fact is this is a critical safe sex message,” Porter said.
Beginning on November 22, Four Seasons Condoms shared the ad on Facebook, getting tons of shares and reactions on the social media network. "Help us go viral," the company said in one of its posts.
As of posting time, the ad had over a million views, over 1,600 likes and over 100 dislikes on YouTube.
While people were generally amused by the ad, others were not so impressed. One Facebook user pointed out that the company made the ad knowing it would be banned, and by airing it online, would not have to pay TV fees. In their reply, Four Seasons Condoms said, "To be honest, if we could run on TV we would. Yes there are TV media rates… but there is also an audience."
According to a report on Marketing Mag, the spot is currently being advertised in cinemas, accompanied by a social media campaign to ask the public whether or not the spot should be shown on TV.
