Condom campaign goes straight for gay community

An advertising campaign called “Trust & Put It On,” aimed at encouraging gay couples to use condoms, has started in Russia.

The campaign will consist of three video ads, as well as three different types of stickers, flyers and pamphlets. Focus Media Fund, the creators of the campaign, say that the ads teach people to be more responsible with their health, more cautious and behave less dangerously in terms of being infected with HIV.The main problems of effectively working with same-sex couples are cultural and social factors such as homophobia and discrimination, according to an official press release.This kind of oppression restrains young men from self-identification as being gay or bisexual, and as a result they often decline to participate in preventive health programs. The campaign aims to overcome this challenge by utilizing the different media platforms that are popular within the Russian lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered community.At the moment it is unclear whether the ads will be aired on national television or will remain online only. It is the first campaign in Russia specifically targeting a gay audience.