NYC Health Dept. Unveils New Condom As Part Of Unintended Pregnancy, STI Prevention Efforts

New York City health officials on Wednesday unveiled the city's new official condom as part of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene's efforts to curb the spread of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections, as well as to prevent unintended pregnancies, the New York Post reports.

The health department last year released its first official city condom last year and distributed about three million per month. The condom wrappers were inspired by the city's subway logos (Edozien, New York Post, 2/14). The new condom packages -- which were redesigned by Yves Behar of the San Francisco-based agency fuseproject -- feature the letters "NYC" in black and the word "CONDOM" directly below it in bright colors. The condoms are Ansell Healthcare's Lifestyle brand (Kugler, AP/Google.com, 2/13). The condom packages also feature the new slogan "Get some" (New York Post, 2/14).

According to the AP/Google.com, teams from the health department will begin distributing the condoms around the city Thursday. An ad campaign featuring the new slogan is also scheduled to launch soon on television, radio, subways and buses, the AP/Google.com reports (AP/Google.com, 2/13).

"We want to give away as many condoms as people will use because we're trying to make New York City an even safer place to have sex, and this is a powerful way to do it," Monica Sweeney, assistant commissioner for HIV prevention and control at the health department, said (AP/Google.com, 2/13). She added, "We gave out more than 36 million of [the condoms] last year. I hope the fresh look will help even more New Yorkers protect themselves from infection and unintended pregnancy in 2008" (New York Post, 2/14).