Moving along from fake scandals (previous blog entry) to real ones.  Just in case you don’t know, Just In Case, Inc. is a company that provides cool little discreet condom carrying cases.  “Intimacy Compacts for Women” is how they describe them.

Here’s what they look like.

justincase.jpg

Great idea, right?

Well, Teen Vogue magazine doesn’t think so.  Or they may like them, but they decided to deny them ad space.  Of course, the magazine is a business, and can do whatever it wants.  But this action speaks to the frustration that is the battle for reality-based sex education/awareness in the United States.

I caught up with Rachael Sudul of Just In Case Inc. to get more pissed off about this.

justincaselogo.jpgQ: so Rachael- you have a great product that has encourages healthy decision-making... Tell me what went down with Teen Vogue?

Rachael: We received an email through a separate company trying to sell remnant ad space for Teen Vogue and we thought it was a perfect publication for our product, with the rate of STDs in teens and young adults being 1 in 4.  We had hoped to also spark a conversation.  When we went to take advantage of the ad rate, we were told that the editors at Teen Vogue didn’t want us to advertise with them.

That blows.

It is a disheartening, yet predictable decision. Interesting however since one of their articles in the June/July issue is: "Modern Romance From kissing to “sexting,” check out what teens consider “hooking up”  today."  Sex is used to sell everything even in Teen Vogue; jeans, makeup, food... so we teach our kids and young adults how to seduce in every aspect yet wave our fingers and yell about being abstinent.

And those editors- like politicians who champion abstinence- conveniently ignore their own sexual histories when they were teens.  What message do you hope your product sends to people?

What our product represents is people taking responsibility for their sexual health, young or old, if you are CHOOSING to be sexually active, and you are not 100% sure of your own status or your partner’s, use a condom.
 
When you’re not being cockblocked by Teen Vogue, whom do you advertise with?

We have advertised with Shape magazine and have had a good amount of editorials in large publications such as Shape, Self, Life&Style, and even Grey’s Anatomy magazine.  Kate Walsh talked about our compacts on the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson - it’s the last few minutes of this interview.

Too cool.  So there is hope.  Do you have a favorite dumb reaction to your product?

The reaction is always to the condom... “oh I don’t use condoms!!” As if they are reserved for the more promiscuous of us... if we could just normalize the condom by talking about it we could erase the stigma it has... birth control pills had a stigma as well in the beginning and it has diminished over the years.  We can advertise Viagra and KY Lubricant during prime time on national TV, but not the condom?  Interestingly the STD rates have skyrocketed in seniors with many thanks to that little blue pill since they believe pregnancy is the worst that unprotected sex can bring...

Yeah, sexual health isn’t just for the whippersnappers anymore.  Thanks for your time, Rachael, and thanks to you and your mom for creating such a necessary- and cool- product.  Viva la condom!

To learn more about the cases, and get one for yourself, go to justincaseinc.com.  You can also follow Rachael on Twitter, which is where I first heard about this.  Please share this interview with others.

Positively Yours,
Shawn