Relationships charity Relate and creative agency Ogilvy, have launched ‘Horniculture’, a gardening centre condom campaign that targets the rise of STIs in later life sex.
Supplied by HANX, the sustainable and bio-degradable condom packet designs nod to the cheekiest of vegetable emojis and will be displayed in garden centres across the UK.
The release follows the news that STI infections have more than doubled in the past ten years among UK adults aged 65 and older.
“The playful, vegan, tongue-in-cheek illustrated condoms were showcased at the family-run garden centre Finchley Nurseries,” Ogilvy said.
“By bringing the sexual health debate to an unexpected environment like a garden centre, the campaign will help break down taboos and get people talking about later life sex.”
READ MORE: Marvel joins forces with Prince’s Trust to launch Avengers-inspired product range
The campaign will also roll out nationwide on digital out of home (OOH) screens in partnership with Clear Channel UK. The billboards will display close-up shots of suggestive vegetable seed packets under the banner of ‘The Hornicultural Society’.
“The audience we are talking to don’t realise they have this problem. They’re not looking for it. They’re not listening for it. And they are certainly not going into high street chemists to ask about it,” Ogilvy UK chief executive creative director, Jules Chalkley, said.
“So, partnering with Relate, we decided to crash the number two favourite weekend activity into the number one. We wanted to use the love of gardening to solve the problem of STIs.”
This is the third ‘Let’s talk the joy of later life sex’ campaign that Relate has launched, all in a bid to tackle the stigma around this “all-too-often unspoken subject”. According to Ogilvy, the charity’s 2021 advertisement “won countless awards”.
Relate director of communications and engagement, Sarah Milsom added: “Sex and intimacy can be important at any age so there mustn’t be a taboo around talking about safe sex in later life.”
“Using the unexpected backdrop of a garden centre and focusing on gardening-themed innuendo helps to grab attention and engage people of all ages, encouraging important conversations and breaking down taboos.”
Relate is hailed as England and Wales’ largest provider of relationship support, providing counselling, sex therapy, mediation, training courses and online self-help.
Chalkley concluded: “The simple fact is it that many of us need intimacy now more than ever, and communication is the bedrock of healthy and happy relationships.”
“As a society we are obsessed with love and affection, it can be easy to forget that simple authentic conversation is what defines connection, happiness and intensity.”
Click here to sign up to Marketing Beat’s free daily email newsletter
