On Sep. 5, Durex took internet by storm when they announced their new eggplant flavored condom. The company packaging, as show on their Twitter post captioned as "Breaking News" showed an image of a condom pack with internet's favorite phallic emoji, the eggplant.
In sync with its launch, Durex promoted the eggplant emoji few months ago to encourage the idea of safe sex and sexting; eggplant, obviously, representing a penis, Mirror reported. In a study conducted by Durex, it was discovered that 18-25-year olds talk about sex more comfortably when they do it through emojis. Durex is known for flavored condoms like apple, banana, chocolate etc., but when Mirror reached out to Durex to know about the unique eggplant flavor, it was revealed that the news is a hoax, but with a message.
Apart from being a light marketing tactic, the whole point of this eggplant flavored condom has a serious message behind the buzz. According to a company spokesperson, "Durex knows there is no place for an aubergine when it comes to safe sex." It's just as questionable, in fact, as a decision not to introduce a Safe Sex Emoji to empower young people to talk about sex, safely, in a language they are comfortable with."
Even though this whole eggplant/aubergine flavored condom was just a troll by Durex, it did get many people talking. The company may not exactly be launching a savory condom, but they did create all the hype as part of the company's campaign to attract young people's attention towards talking about safe sex.
"Emojis are a crucial part of how young couples connect and research suggests that the creation of official safe sex emojis are vital to inserting messages around protection into their sexual conversations," Durex said in a press release at the time, reported CNBC.
