Endangered Species Condoms – Win Lifetime Condom Supply

What do you get when you pair endangered species with a few catchy lines and condoms? A clever campaign that highlights the impact of human overpopulation on wildlife.

The Center for Biological Diversity and – most importantly – 3,000 volunteers are distributing 200,000 free Endangered Species Condoms across the United States (in 50 states) to highlight how unsustainable human population growth is driving species extinct at a cataclysmic rate. They are supposed to help people understand the impact of overpopulation on other species and give them a chance to take action in their own life.

The condom packages, featuring slogans like wrap with care... save the polar bear, are being distributed by a network of 3,000 volunteers ranging from ministers to grandmothers to healthcare providers to college students and biologists. The condoms were and are handed out at concerts, bars, universities, spiritual groups, local events, and farmer’s markets. Along with two condoms, each nicely desidned package contains information on the species, facts about overpopulation and the extinction crisis, and suggestions on how the human population can be stabilized.

Six different packages were made with drawings of six species that are listed as threatened or endangered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service: the polar bear, the jaguar (“Wear a jimmy hat, save the big cat”), the American burying beetle (“Cover your tweedle, save the burying beetle”), the snail darter (“Hump smarter, save the snail darter”), the coquí guajón rock frog (“Use a stopper, save the hopper”), and the spotted owl (“Wear a condom now, save the spotted owl”).

Since the campaign has proven to be very successful, the organization has decided to double the number of condoms given out:

“We’ve been overwhelmed with volunteers,” said Serraglio. “We expected 100, but got over 3,000 in just a month. The demand far exceeded our first run of 100,000 condoms. We’ll be producing another 100,000 as soon as the first batch hits the streets.”

Hit EndangeredSpeciesCondoms.com to read more about the actual goals of the campaign and while you're there, you may also decide to distribute condoms along the other volunteers or simply enter a competition to win a lifetime condom supply (I thought it was interesting noting that this has been set at 2000 condoms...).

And here are the campaign artworks plus slogans:

Wear a jimmy hat... save the big cat

Cover your tweedle... save the burying beetle

Hump smarter... save the snail darter

Wear a condom now... save the spotted owl

Wrap with care... save the polar bear

Use a stopper... save the hopper

Thanks to Randy, design credits Lori Lieber/image credit Endangered Species Print Project.