How The Condom King Made It Normal To Talk About Birth Control

May 29, 2024

This is the condom King

Mechai Viravaidya is a politician and activist from Thailand who in the 1970s realised that Thailand needed to reduce its population, the average family had 7 children and they didn’t have the ability to control the size of their family.

There were two problems:

  1. Most people didn’t have (or know about) basic birth control

  2. People were uncomfortable talking about sex.

And so Mechai started the most amazing educational campaigns of all time.

The idea was simple: If people became more comfortable talking about condoms they would be more likely to talk about family planning.

Here’s what they did

They held condom-blowing competitions

A monk-blessed condoms

Hello there

Cops gave out condoms (he called it the cop and rubber program)

Taxi Drivers gave out condoms

Condoms became hair bands, clothing and phone carriers (”for the rainy season).

Aaaaand all of this worked!

Families went from having 7 children on average to 1.5.

Then AIDS hit Thailand.

So they started educating people about AIDS. They taught journalists, teachers, primary school students and businesses (“sick staff don’t work, dead customers don’t buy”) how AIDS spreads and how to protect yourself.

They even had help from captain condom

“You need a symbol of something” - Mechai

What Happened?

Between 1991 - 2003

  • New HIV /AIDS infections dropped by 90%

  • Worked bank estimates they saved 7.7 million lives

The World Bank called Mechai’s campaign “one of the most successful and effective family planning programs in the world.”

Key Idea:

  • The golden rule of behavioural change is this: make it easy

Cheers,

Jon

ps. Now, when people in Thailand want a condom, they don’t ask for a condom, they ask for a “Mechai”.If that’s not a success I don’t know what is.

“Let the next Olympics save some lives, why just run around?”

Sources