Condom Promotion: The Need for a Social Marketing Program in America's Inner Cities

Abstract

Current marketing efforts by commercial condom manufacturers are directed at White consumers and therefore neglect inner city Blacks and Latinos as potential users of condoms. This paper reviews “social marketing programs” developed in Third World countries to promote condoms as a contraceptive, often with the financial assistance of the United States or other governments. This technology — which includes product, pricing, distribution, and promotional considerations — should be applied in the United States, especially to reach poor minority populations that are currently at greater risk for teenage pregnancy, AIDS, and other sexually transmitted diseases.