A safe sex promotion by Planned Parenthood is using condoms with QR codes to encourage individuals to use protection.
They allow mobile phone users to scan the barcodes in order to add their location to an internet map. The concept behind the promotion is that if people see that people all around the area is taking part in safe sex through the use of a condom, more people will be likely to think about and practice safer sex.
The Great Northwest division of Planned Parenthood has distributed 55,000 condoms with these barcodes among students at universities and community colleges, as well as through its own Western Washington health centers. The QR codes are printed on the condom wrappers, and they can be scanned through the use of smartphones.
After scanning the codes, users are redirected to a mobile website that allows them to identify their approximate location and asks them a few questions that are non-identifying, regarding their age demographic, and a few questions such as “The safe sex was…” with possible answers such as “things can only improve from here” through to “ah-mazing”.
From that point, this rendezvous location will be added to a searchable map in the form of a little blue dot. The map is located at WhereDidYouWearIt.com, and it allows users to zoom in on their own area of interest to see how many other people in that general vicinity have also scanned the code.
According to the PPGNW new-media coordinator, Nathan Engerbretson, the concept behind the campaign is meant to target college students and others in that age group, who are already familiar and comfortable with social media, to encourage healthy sexuality through a declaration that they are “proud to wear protection”.
