Made in California may require condoms

A reader of this blog sent me a link to a rather interesting news item from California over the weekend (Thanks!). According to the US magazine The Advocate, the AIDS Healthcare Foundation in California is planning on petitioning for a law to require condoms being used in adult movies (the article can be found here). The arguments that the AHF uses are that workers in the adult industry should be protected, which is of course a very valid point. Another point though is absent from the statement, and that is the question whether or not what is happening in adult movies may influence perceptions of “normality”, and “what is expected”, which is part of an ongoing research project we are working on (see the post about the project here) . Our research is grounded in the Theory of Reasoned Action/Theory of Planned Behaviour (see image below).

In other words, what we are interested in is, if people do form their views of what is expected and “normal” from media consumption, even if this is not (usually) a major plot line (as using a condom or not using a condom would be) - and how that then in turn does (or does not) influence their intentions and potentially behaviours, especially behaviours that are often very private and for which there are only limited other experiences apart from media and own experiences. This is, of course, ultimately leading us to ask if and how this can be used for social marketing purposes. In other words, while the original AHF petition maybe mostly about workers in the adult industry, it may be, that if such a ban comes into force, and if the TRA/TPB model guides us in the right way, such a ban on condomless sex on screen may have also a prevention effect in the much wider public that consumes adult movies (for an interesting discussion on how many this may be, see this Time article).

Related posts:

1. “Kickass”: The Bareback Porn & HIV Prevention Research I have recently become involved in a very interesting project: it is looking at the relationship between condom-less pornography and risk-taking behaviour. In 1980s many adult film producers started...
2. A little fun… with condoms. OK, not for the faint hearted (or anyone who may find blown up condoms doing “it” objectionable)…. but a rather nice change from the scary messages of the 80s used...
3. Current Themes in Social Marketing I recently held a workshop in Hamburg on research in Social Marketing and one of the bits of data I used to inform the discussion was a “Top 100 of...
4. Social Media & Social Marketing Social media, and in particular user-generated media, offer a myriad of possibilities for enhancing the engagement of target audiences with social marketing campaigns. Social media, which enables easy and free...
5. Working together for a common good? Partnerships are a tricky thing in Social Marketing, especially when the partnerships are between a commercial organisation and a non-profit or governmental organisation. Some academics (see Previte & Fry, 2006...