A condom distribution machine at the Olympic and Paralympic Village for the 2016 Rio Olympic Games displaying the Olympic Rings in Barra da Tijuca.Buda Mendes/Getty Images
As certainly as the Olympics arrive in four-year cycles, news watchers can rely on perennial stories about the thousands of condoms handed out in the teeming Athletes' Village. (The count in Rio de Janeiro: 450,000 to be distributed to athletes and staff at a free clinic in the Village, about three times the number handed out in London in 2012.) So naturally, condom manufacturers see the Games as an advertising opportunity. In London, organizers cracked down after unauthorized brands of condoms made their way into the Village, emphasizing that Reckitt Benckiser's Durex brand was the official supplier.
This time around, one brand is using an unusual tactic to bring Olympic attention to its brand: it has built athletic apparel out of condom material.
Skyn condoms, manufactured by Australian company Ansell Ltd., has released a video about its "experiment in sports performance." The company hired a fashion designer to build a long-jump suit for Dutch jumper Joren Tromp, and filmed him jumping in it.
A shorter version of the video will run on television in Brazil during the Games. (Mr. Tromp is not competing in Rio, so the company did not apply for the waiver required for brands that are not official Olympic sponsors to run advertisements featuring Olympic athletes while the Games are on.) It will also be promoted online in the U.S., Australia, France, Italy, Poland, the U.K. and China.
The Amsterdam office of Montreal-based advertising agency Sid Lee created the campaign.
The suit was built from Polyisoprene, a polymer that the company promotes as an alternative to latex. Unlike during condom manufacturing, colour was added to the material while it was in liquid form, to make the suit opaque.
According to the agency, the suit is a prototype only: for now the company has no plans to make more condom-based clothing.