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The mix of black, white and Asian teenagers look embarrassed and laugh hysterically. A natural reaction perhaps, to an almost middle-aged old woman approaching them while they're minding their own business, hanging outside their schools wearing hoodies and smoking.
What makes it really excruciating is that I'm brandishing a picture of Jimmie Hatz condoms (marketed as 'the official hip-hop condom'), launched in the US in response to the high rate of sexually transmitted disease (STD) among young Afro-Americans. In Britain, too, there is increasing concern among health professions about the spread of STDs and HIV among, in particular, teenage Afro-Caribbean communities, where, according to The Health Protection Agency, levels are as much as 20 per cent higher then in comparable white populations.
The manufacturers of these new, 'cool' Jimmie Hatz condoms are bringing them to the UK early next year, and I was hoping to find out from the gang what the response might be to a brand of condom aimed specifically at them.
Jimmie Hatz condoms come in Great Dane (extra large), Mixed Breed (contoured with dotted and ribbed texture) and the Rottweiler (standard-size condom) and each has a picture of a hip-hop dog with slogans such as 'protect your neck' and 'Expand your cabeza' written across them as if by spray can. The term 'Jimmie Hatz', to describe condoms, was coined by 80s rap group the Jungle Brothers, and was further taken up by KRS ONE, who sang about the importance of safe sex on 'Jimmy' in 1988.
The street coolness of the condom's name does not seem to impress my random marketing group though, and as they are falling about uncontrollably and whacking each other, I decide, perhaps unwisely, to leave the Jimmie Hatz pictures with them, along with my email and the Jimmie Hatz website address (packed with hip-hop soundrooms, good question-and-answer information and chatrooms) and tell them to mail me if they decide they have any more interesting comments than 'you pervert'.
Harry Terrell, 33, is the founder and CEO of Common Ground USA, which makes and markets Jimmie Hatz. In the late 90s he was a high-school basketball teacher who was deeply upset when one of his students contracted Aids. Like many Afro-Americans, he had been under the impression that in the US Aids was a 'white man's disease'. That was until he saw the numbers at the Center for Disease Control website.
'It was staggering. The number of Aids and HIV cases is increasing at an alarming rate and shows no sign of decline. In 2000, the last year for which national figures are available, more African Americans were reported with Aids than any other racial/ethnic group. While only 12 per cent of the population is Afro-American, we represent 37 per cent of all Aids cases in the US. It struck me that in the inner cities there is a real lack of resources and education. It's as if nobody cares.' Terrell's response was to put all his savings into trying to make condoms fun, cheap (a packet of 12 costs $11.95) and hip.
In Britain, too, the past decade has seen an across the board explosion in the spread of sexually transmitted infections, with infections like gonorrhoea and chlamydia particularly prevalent in the Afro-Caribbean community, which has seen a sixfold increase in rates of HIV since 1995. Jeanette Wilson, a sexual health worker in south London, says, 'People in the black community are beginning to address the problem by getting people to talk openly about their attitudes to sex. Of particular concern is how to get more young people to use condoms.' If the small gang I accosted is anything to go by this is an extremely hard age group to reach.
Not only are boys in particular unwilling to admit that they have anything to learn about sex, but, according to a Brook Advisory survey in 2001, 54 per cent were unwilling to use condoms because they made sex less enjoyable. On top of this, try too hard to make a product 'cool' and you risk derision and rejection. On one New York hip-hop website, Diesel Nation, the editor describes the condoms as 'crazy corny' and advises Jimmie Hatz against making them 'look cheesy with "graphiti" and such'.
As Jan Barlow, chief executive of the Brook Advisory Centres for the under 25s, says, 'The condom manufacturers have to be careful not to come across as patronising.'
Terrell, however, considers himself part of and extremely knowledgeable about the 'hip-hop' community. He says he also did careful research before launching the condoms. 'We used focus groups of the relevant age group to help us decide which names and slogans to use. The dog logo and the name Jimmie Hatz condoms were chosen. We take everything to the streets, and if they say it's hot, then it's hot.'
Rakin Fetuga is a British rap artist who works as a secondary school mentor at South Camden Community School in London. He very much approves of the Hatz website. 'I think it's very clever to aim condoms at the hip-hop market and use rap music to entice young people to use them. I think the range he has is good, and he has given them fun names. Teenagers are having sex at a younger age than ever before, and this product might just appeal to them.'
Barbara Hastings, managing director of British company Contraception Education, agrees with Terrell. 'Anything cartooney and current is good for teens. Marketeers in the UK have already got this idea - there were South Park condoms which Condomania produced earlier this year. Younger members of my family said that they were drawn to them.'
I put the two sensible questions I did manage to extract from my small teenage group to Terrell. Firstly, from Ben: 'On the website it says that Jimmie Hatz are meant for 18- to 35-year-olds. Most teenagers have sex much younger than that. Wouldn't they have already caught an STD by then? On top of that they seem very babyish for that age group.'
Terrell admits that he knows that his target audience is much younger than that, probably between 12 and 35, but says that in the US he is wary of 'certain groups' coming after him for encouraging or promoting sexual behaviour between minors.
To Danielle's question, 'Are these only for black teenagers?' Terrell says, 'I see the condoms being bought by white youths in Britain as well. Hip-hop is a way of life and our definition of who's in the hip-hop culture is simple. It doesn't matter what nationality or race you are, you just have to be into rapping, DJ-ing, graffiti or the music.'
It is easy to mock or be cynical about a company that talks about 'da product', but Ed McConniffe, chairman of Body Positive North West, says that anything that might help stop the spread of sexually transmitted diseases among teenagers should be welcomed. 'If that means turning condoms into a fashion item then so be it,' he says. 'I don't think that nearly enough is being done to effectively spread the safe sex message to young people in schools, nightclubs and bars.'
www.jimmiehatz.com
www.brook.org.uk/content
Sophie Radice
The Observer
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