The dull and dreary-looking condom billboards in Kigali need to stop popping up everywhere. They are a source of misery to me, what with the complete lack of creative product design on such a vital device – one which saves lives, prevents unwanted pregnancies and all the frou frou that comes with unplanned parenthood.There is one on the main road of Kicukiro around the Rwandex area, one leading to Cadillac and, recently spotted – one on the road to Bugesera, which sparked some debate in the car I was in, on how we advertise condoms or encourage condom use on billboards in Kigali.These particular billboards are the epitome of non-creative advertising at its best. On these billboards are condoms taken out of the packet, and photographed against a white background. No colour contrast there, so from afar it looks like a blank white board with some grey, squiggly item drawn on it. Underneath the image is a flat, uninspiring message encouraging condom use. One has to strain the eyes to make out a rubbery piece of latex and the word condom, before it dawns on the viewer that this is a billboard ad on condoms.Considering we’re driving when reading billboards, one doesn’t have time to take them in, so you would think the creators would have made them as noticeable and attractive as possible. Alas, this is not the case. Each time I pass one such billboard, I wonder exactly how an oily piece of rubber latex posted on a billboard in the middle of town supposed to make a memorable imprint on the consumer’s mind. Really, how?Condom advertising is usually a creative director’s playground, as the use of humour, creativity, and taboo-breaking is exercised to a certain level. Such billboard adverts clearly show the innovative thinking that was undertaken, a sort of tool in the creative process that makes the consumer feel a bit clever to have understood the message. At least that’s how such billboard ads are supposed to be. I wondered when I would see this happening with the Kigali billboards advertising condoms.It seemed my prayers to the advertising gods were answered, when I saw that these billboards were replaced with others showcasing Rwandan celebrities advertising condom use for a national campaign. Some progress there, I grudgingly accepted. Here now was the factor of attraction being used, through celebrity endorsement; a sure recipe to get the attention of the motorist or pedestrian viewer. Second, it appealed to a high-risk audience which is youth aged 18–35 years, or thereabouts. On many levels, this was a welcome change to prior condom billboard advertising.That is, until the niggling questions at the back of my mind popped up again. Why does Massamba have to hold a naked condom in his hand? It is already messy to look at, so I can imagine how messy it was to hold it for the ten photo shoots he must have taken.

Also, why does Tom Close have such a dead-pan expression on such an important subject? Why oh why, is a condom being stretched to its limit by another smiling celebrity, as if it were a plaything? Suffice to say, the prayers were short-lived.Understandably, condoms are usually a tricky product to market or advertise, as the subject of sex is still taboo in many societies.

It really is a tightrope affair. Nonetheless, there are still ways in which the use of condoms can respectfully be advertised, factoring fun, creative and attractive images. Just looking at the national campaigns on condom use in Kenya or South Africa is testament to this. That said, Kigali – a bit more creativity with our billboards, please.