Australia’s largest condom erected in Hyde Park via Revolution360 for ACON’s ‘I’m On’ campaign
A massive 18m tall condom will cover one of Sydney’s iconic landmarks for the next seven days as part of a new HIV prevention campaign commissioned by ACON – NSW’s lead agency for HIV prevention among gay men.
The giant hot pink condom will sheath the heritage-listed Hyde Park Obelisk, situated at the intersection of Elizabeth St and Bathurst St in the CBD. Running for a week from this Thursday, the installation aims to help raise awareness among gay men about how they can help end HIV transmission in NSW by 2020.
The installation has been executed by leading experiential agency, Revolution360, and is the climax of the I’M ON safe sex education campaign. ACON has been promoting the I’M ON campaign for the last three weeks on the streets of Sydney and across gay-focused, mainstream and social media.
In addition to the towering condom, Revolution360 has coordinated safe sex ambassadors to be on-site handing out free condoms and information about the health and social benefits of ‘staying safe’ to passers-by.
ACON CEO Nicolas Parkhill explained that while new drugs are starting to provide other means of protection against HIV, condoms remain central to the fight against HIV because they are still one of the most effective ways of preventing HIV transmission.
Says Parkhill: “The need for gay men to ‘stay safe’ by using condoms is at the core of NSW’s strategy for eliminating HIV transmission by the end of the decade. We won’t be able to achieve this goal unless gay men use condoms when they’re having high-risk sex with casual partners, particularly in situations where a partner’s HIV status isn’t known – it’s that simple.”
Michael Fishwick, sales manager for Revolution360 said the installation is an intriguing way to get the attention to promote a very important message.
Says Fishwick: “Working closely with ACON we wanted to deliver this positive but serious message with a touch of humour and humanity, to create interest, intrigue and talkability. This concept was inspired by guerrilla activity in Paris, but in Sydney we were fortunate enough able to collaborate closely with City of Sydney, Sydney Water and many others. It was very much a united team, working towards a common goal.”
The giant pink condom will be in-situ until Wednesday 12 November 2014. The safe sex ambassadors will be on site on Thursday 6 and Saturday 8 November.
Revolution360
Director of Events & Experiential: Nigel Ruffell
Head of Production: Amanda Hughes
Campaign Administration: Laura Carroll
Sales Manager: Michael Fishwick
ACON:
Planners: Tony Tang, Yves Calmette
Campaign Production: Mike Wacher
Marketing: Michael Badorrek
6 Comments
Let’s turn an Australian war memorial into a giant cock.
Did you really need to shit-stain our soldiers with that?
No, it was built to ventilate the sewerage system (and now stormwater). So maybe your reference to shit-staining isn’t too far off.
Not really a great tribute to soldiers though now is it?
So Paris gets an arse plug, and we get a franga.
Can’t wait to explain that to my 6 year old.
Utterly tasteless.
@uncomfortable your six year old won’t understand what sex, let alone a condom is, so he won’t be offended, tell him whatever you like. For anyone old enough to understand what sex is, the problem as you’ve stated is people are uncomfortable talking about safe sex when it shouldn’t be taboo. This is about normalising the issue.
Seriously, why did I have to lie to my 5 and 6 year old in the car. What’s planned for them next year ? How about lots of live demonstrations throughout the park on how to put on a condom and have gay sex, what d ya think Revolution 360, would that normalise things?
Do the Mardi Gras community still need to be reminded about safe sex practices after all the money spent on preventing Aids and developing medicines for long quality of life ….. how fortunate you are. You’d think if the same applied to cancer research there’d probably be a cure by now.