Proselytizers for Prophylactics

Even though at least 7,000,000 American women now use contraceptive pills, which are 99% effective, millions more seem to be poorly informed about birth control. An estimated one-third of U.S. children are products of unplanned pregnancies; 21% of all first babies are conceived before marriage, and 10% of all births are illegitimate. To cope with this phenomenon, two crusaders have started a campaign to regain popularity for the old-fashioned condom.

The crusaders are Philip Harvey, former deputy director of CARE for India, and Dr. T.R.L. Black, a British internist. Operating out of a second-floor office over a bank in Chapel Hill, N.C., they run a nonprofit company called Population Services Inc. It aims to promote increased use of condoms--the rubber sheaths for men that are sold without prescription but have lately fallen victim to a male assumption that women on the Pill will take care of everything.

Under-Counter Item. Named for a Dr. Condom, a 17th century English physician who allegedly invented them, condoms are now used by roughly 18 million people around the world. They are advertised and sold openly in Europe, promoted by a government campaign in overpopulated India. But in the U.S., they remain an under-the-counter item, sold in drugstores "for prevention of disease only," or peddled by vending machines in bars and filling stations. To combat this furtive attitude, P.S.I, offers a mail-order line of American and British rubber products--and is trying to advertise them in newspapers and magazines.

So far, the only commercial publications to run condom ads at all are Playboy, Ebony and a few male-oriented pulps. Broadcasters have been equally standoffish. The basic reason is fear of offending audiences. The law is no longer a serious obstacle. Though postal regulations technically forbid advertising or sending contraceptives through the mails, recent Supreme Court decisions have rendered those rules unenforceable. Broadcast codes imposed by the industry, not the Federal Trade and Communications Commission, permit any advertising that meets the standards of truth and good taste.

Pandemic Problem. By contrast, more than 400 college and "underground" newspapers have accepted P.S.I, ads, which range in taste from the slightly risque to the gently humorous ("What will you get her for Christmas . . . pregnant?"). In response, P.S.I, has received more than 2,000 orders since it went into business last January, mostly from students in smaller communities, where the Pill is rare and drugstore anonymity impossible. The average P.S.L customer buys three dozen condoms for $5.50. But students at New Jersey's Rutgers University have joined together to buy in quantity; one fraternity at Berkeley orders a gross a week.

This month P.S.I, will run ads in more than 200 college newspapers. To liven up its products, the firm may soon import a line of varicolored and even monogrammed condoms from abroad. P.S.I, is also tapping the off-campus market. A direct mailing of 2,500 flyers with prepaid postcards netted a dozen orders and only seven negative responses, even though the mailing list by design included several elderly spinsters.

While trying to reduce unwanted pregnancies, P.S.I, is helping to combat a worse problem: venereal disease. According to the American Social Health Association, VD now affects 14 million Americans and has reached "pandemic" proportions in the U.S. VD is transmitted only by direct sexual contact. The condom is the only contraceptive that prevents both the contact and the disease.

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