Jontex Condom Ad - Possible Hoax

The image to the right shows what is supposedly a guerrilla marketing campaign by Jontex, a Brazilian brand of condoms owned by Johnson & Johnson. The campaign involves a cardboard cutout that can be positioned beneath the door of a bathroom stall. The Brazilian phrase translates to, "You do not know when it can be necessary."

But strangely, Johnson and Johnson is denying responsibility for the ad. Or, at least, the folks who run the Johnson and Johnson blog claim it's not their company's campaign:

By talking to some people at the Johnson & Johnson operating company in Brazil I discovered that the “ad” (which you can see here to the right) was not one of theirs, and was in fact a hoax.
My guess is that someone in Brazil developed these fake ads in an attempt to poke fun at the often racy nature of the advertising for prophylatics.


It seems like a lot of work for someone to create as a hoax. It could either be a subviral campaign (an ad campaign that a company creates but then denies responsibility for), or a "spec ad" (a speculative ad created by an agency to show a potential client what they're capable of).

Advertising Sex/Romance

Posted on Fri Jan 11, 2008



Comments

Portuguese. Not Brazilian. The language is Portuguese.
Posted by Carl Fink  on  Sun Jan 13, 2008  at  06:32 PM
I took Portuguese for 7 years (all of middle school and high school). I think a better translation of the slogan would be "You never know when you're going to need it," or "You never know when you'll need it." The translation, "You do not know when it can be necessary" works, I suppose, but it sounds awkward in English and the two other interpretations ones I mentioned are more literal translations.
Posted by Matt  on  Mon Feb 04, 2008  at  04:45 PM
What a great idea, would certainly make me laugh if I saw one!
Posted by Alex  on  Mon Jan 04, 2010  at  07:22 AM
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