'Enjoy your mountin': Utah cancels state-issued condoms over innuendo
Republican governor objects to ‘sexual innuendo as part of a taxpayer-funded campaign’ to prevent spread of HIV
Republican governor objects to ‘sexual innuendo as part of a taxpayer-funded campaign’ to prevent spread of HIV
The condoms featured Utah-specific locations and jokes, such as “SL,UT” as a shorthand for Salt Lake City, Utah, and “Uintah sex?” as a reference for a Utah county. Officials had planned to distribute 100,000 condoms as part of an HIV prevention effort.
Utah is not the first state to use cheeky condoms to encourage people to use them. Campaigns in Wyoming and Alaska used visual puns to attract attention. Alaska’s campaign had an image of a fishing boat and said
“Avoid bycatch”, and an oil rig with the words “drill safely”. Wyoming’s showed the famous Devil’s Tower rock formation and read: “Protect your landmark.”
Health officials are now struggling to put the genie back in the bottle. Even after shutting down the website and ordering health officials to stop handing out the condoms, KUTV reported 42,000 of 130,000 condoms had already been distributed.
“I have not heard yet from our staff what we are actually going to do with them,” Jenny Johnson, a spokesperson for the Utah health department told the Salt Lake Tribune. “We’re still scrambling to get them back.”
