Fertility expert hopes sex sells its message through national ad campaign via Jam, Adelaide
In a daring move away from its traditional marketing channels Repromed, Australia’s leading infertility research and treatment provider, via Jamshop, Adelaide, is about to embark on a cheeky new national campaign to recruit sperm donors.
Themed “don’t waste your sperm” the January 2011 campaign, to run in men’s magazine FHM, involves a full page pic of an attractive lingerie model and an interactive website questionnaire that goes live today (December 6).
The brief to Jam was to highlight the critical shortage of registered sperm donors in Australia and encourage more men to sign up.
Peter Joy, Jam principal and strategy director, said that given a tight budget and two week timeframe, senior creative writer Jonnny Velis and art director Becq Hinton, soon developed an attention-grabbing idea to take the issue to a wider male audience: “It’s a serious issue and we wanted to put the idea out there but in a fun, light hearted and cheeky way to get the point across, hence the pin-up girl with the words ‘don’t waste your sperm’ overlayed’.
“The website, linking them back to Repromed, asks men to respond to a series of important filtering questions to see if they qualify as a donor – things like weight, age, health and lifestyle questions. Again it’s styled fairly light heartedly but with a point.”
Repromed SA marketing manager Miranda Smith said there was a “significant” lack of donors in Australia: “For some people, their only hope of having a child is with the aid of sperm, egg or embryo donors, but it’s also a complex and lifelong decision,” she said.
“There are increasing numbers of couples requiring sperm donation as a result of the trend for more women leaving it until they are in their 30s or later to start a family.
“We are also seeing greater numbers of same sex couples wanting a family and lifestyle factors having a negative impact on men’s fertility, meaning more couples need the help of a sperm donor. I felt it was crucial we create a unique campaign to increase awareness and effectively capture the attention of potential donors.”
Ms Smith said all potential donors undergo a series of rigorous medical checks and thorough counseling sessions before being accepted to the program.
25 Comments
Peter?
Joy?
Jam?
Johnny?
Cool idea for a sticky subject matter ;p
Nice idea.
I’m sure it’ll catch a few blokes with their pants down.
LOVE IT!!!
Nice solution to what would have been a stiff brief.
Great campaign.
I’m sure it will make a lot of guys stand to attention.
…too late.
I like it! It’s a nice way to lure you to the website.
Proof that FHM readers are wankers.
It doesn’t say much for the future collective IQ of Australians if a sizeable proportion of them have fathers who read “men’s magazines”.
@ Chris – I think perhaps you’ve had one too many pulls yourself.
Lighten up mate it’s a great way to get people talking about the shortage of registered sperm donors.
Well said Andrew
Yeah Andrew. You’re awesome.
Chicks are awesome!
Um, a campaign that says Don’t waste your sperm, that makes you waste your sperm.
Should have been a turn off, not a turn on.
Don’t want to spoil anyone’s fun, but this is a serious issue.
My wife and I had a beautiful daughter after 6 years of IVF.
Having made the decision to not have any more children, we were asked what we wanted to do with my remaining frozen sperm.
Donate it to help someone to help them have a child?
Donate it to research?
Destroy it?
We chose research.
We didn’t choose to help someone else have a child.
And this is the point I’d like readers to consider before encouraging people to donate sperm.
Having a child is the best thing that’ll ever happen to you.
But it’s not just about you.
It’s also about the child.
Every child is entitled to have a mother and a father and to know who they are.
They don’t have to live with them, they don’t have to be in traditional family environments, they just need to know who they are.
It’s wrong to say it’s not important, because IT IS.
So, if you’re going to donate sperm for couples sadly incapable of having a child of their own, that’s great.
But if you think you can just go to a clinic, donate your sperm and leave with a couple of hundred bucks in your hand and that’s the end of it, you’re wrong.
One day ‘your’ child will want to know who you are. [Regardless of how much that child loves those who’ve always been their ‘parents’].
Just like you would if the circumstances were reversed.
So, if you donate sperm to help give someone a child, understand that with that donation comes a great responsibility; to make sure you’re man enough to give the child a ‘father’ in addition to the one who raises them.
I couldn’t commit to that responsibility. Those that do have my admiration.
Seems very scammy.
You’re putting me off my stroke 9.30.
Apparently the agency did consider changing its name to Pearl Jam for this campaign
Nicely handled. Well done Becq and Johnny!
10:41, I wish I’d said that.
Just got busted looking at this at work. It wouldn’t have been so bad except I was holding a staff meeting.
Sorry guys.
This idea doesn’t really make sense. They don’t want you to waste your sperm but they show you an image that makes you want to wank.
It would have been better if every FHM mag came with a container to collect your sperm – this container could have been addressed to the sperm bank.
To guy who asks the hard questions. Good observation and to back-up 9:30 – be man enough to put your name to it.
I thought all the naive, junior would-be creative rants were on Ads of the World.
Fig, jam! 🙂
Don’t waste a creative opportunity more like.
Why the hell didn’t they stick the sticker over her pussy?
Isn’t that kind obvious?????
Crap art direction on the sticker.
Apart from that not a bad idea Jimmy lad.