Cramer-Krasselt gets naughty with nonprofit group.

REEL Chicago – August 28, 2017

By Colin Costello

According to a CNN report, teen birth rates are at historic lows across Milwaukee and the rest of the country dropping to a low of 9% — great news considering that preventing teen births is positively correlated with finishing high school and having better long-term health and financial outcomes.

However, within several Milwaukee zip codes, Cramer-Krasselt learned that teens were living a different reality — teen birth rates were more than three times that of the rest of the city, and STI rates for Gonorrhea were some of the worst in the entire nation.

C-K determined that the current safe sex campaigns that were working across the rest of Milwaukee, were falling on deaf ears for this group of teens. Because of that, C-K realized creating yet another ad campaign wouldn’t be effective. A needed a different solution altogether.

The agency teamed with Diverse and Resilient, a Milwaukee non-profit, dedicated to eliminate health disparities between LGBTQ people and the general population, in a new PSA campaign that can be accurately described as experiential.

After determining that often times it is not awareness that’s the problem with asking or taking a free condom, but the intimidation factor, for teens, the partnership has launched Naughty Bags – a fun and colorful condom wrapper designed specifically for teens.

Fun, giggle-inducing names like “Pork Parka,” “Snake Sweater and “Papa Stopper” simply roll off your tongue while you dip into a free dispenser at Milwaukee Barbershops Gee’s Clipper and Dep’s Hall of Shade and apply them to your… scuba gear.

Take that, Trojan!

What’s more, the condoms have been created using input from the very group they are targeting. “They were developed using insights gathered from focus groups made up of urban teens. Everything from the names to the artwork were developed using the teens’ feedback” says C-K Group Creative Director Ned Brown.

He added that C-K wanted there to be a sense of humor and personality in the names and designs to lower the stress of taking them.

“By playing off of fun euphemisms and using bright, bold colors and graphics in the packaging design, we believed we could create something that would remove the intimidation factor for teens when using condoms. For inspiration, we looked at the world that surrounds teens every day, from music to fashion to video games and even graffiti art.”

Going a step further, the agency added in a video game-style animation called “Papa Stopper” where digitized condom shoots down incoming sperm.

The condoms will be available free of charge in neighborhoods with high pregnancy rates, as well as community barbershops and colorful dispensing machines throughout the Milwaukee ZIP codes with the highest rates.

Diverse & Resilient will also distribute Naughty Bags through their existing 414ALL free condom program all around Milwaukee.