Company Markets Coffee-Flavored Condoms in Ethiopia

In a recent study performed in Ethiopia, close to a million people were tested for HIV. Of those million subjects, over seven percent tested positive for HIV. As grim as these statistics may sound, consider this: the previous year’s study found over five percent of the subjects tested positive for HIV. That is a 26% increase within one year. In a country where the HIV/AIDS epidemic is at an all-time high and is home to ten percent of our world’s HIV cases, there is a mad scramble to promote anything that will slow the sweeping epidemic. 

In September 2007, the marketing group DKT-Ethiopia responded with an ambitious and unconventional campaign to promote safe sex: condoms tinged with the flavor of coffee.  After all, there is a long-held theory that the country invented coffee, so why not market on that history to the benefit of hundreds of thousands? Upon their release, in one week approximately 300,000 of these coffee-flavored condoms were sold to the masses. Each pack contains three condoms and costs about one Ethiopian birr or eleven cents, less expensive than other condoms being marketed in Ethiopia.

These coffee condoms not only smell the part, they also look the part with their deep brown color. DKT-Ethiopia was meticulous in their research, even creating the new condoms to taste like the Ethiopian coffee of choice: the macchiato.  The macchiato preferred in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, is usually made with a shot of espresso and liberal amounts of sugar and milk. DKT initiated this campaign as a response to condom-user complaints that the latex scent of regular condoms was overpowering. This spurred the launch of these coffee condoms in Ethiopia as well as other regional-specific flavors in other parts of the world.

With government estimates reporting 7 out of every 100 people in Addis Ababa being infected with AIDS, this campaign couldn’t have come at a better time. The director of DKT-Ethiopia, Andrew Piller, has given his assurance that his worldwide social marketing organization is not in the business of making money, but rather ensuring that those who use condoms feel more comfortable wearing them so that they continue to responsibly practice safe sex.

DKT’s social marketing techniques revolve around marketing and providing condoms in those areas where sexual promiscuity is highest, like motels and bars. However, despite DKT’s movement to offer condoms at a reasonable price in order to promote safe sex and stop the sweeping AIDS epidemic, the company is not without its critics. Despite outside appearances, Ethiopia is a very conservative country and its orthodox church feels it is improper to promote condoms, especially condoms that take a custom like coffee and make it sexual in nature. Instead, they feel it is more appropriate and more impacting to encourage abstinence. 

In a country that is riddled with sexual violence and unsafe sex practices, it is an understatement to say that Ethiopia is in dire need of drastic measures. With a 2.1% AIDS rate that is on an upward path, this country can only benefit from the promotion of safe sex, java-flavored or not.