United Kingdom Advertising Campaigns: Keep Mrs. Dawson Busy

When it comes to sexual health there are significant gender inequalities, according to Irish Family Planning Association (IFPA) more women contract STIs (Sexually Transmitted Infections) from men than vice versa, therefore the risk is much higher for woman (IFPA, HIV/AIDS & Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights). Women are also at risk of RTIs (Reproductive Transmitted Infections). Sexuality is a social construct by those dominant in society. The dominant group in most societies is heterosexual men. Women are often seen as passive and submissive when it comes to sex. Therefore women might feel they lack control when it comes to practising safer sex. Through the research for this project the evidence shows that gender inequality puts

This campaign would encourage women to get regular STI health checks and to take control over contraception methods by empowering them to have the confidence to insist on condom use with male sexual partners. The use of condoms has often been unpopular, at one point RTÉ refused to have condom advertisements. In the United Kingdom advertising campaigns such as “Keep Mrs. Dawson Busy” deal with condom use in an uncomfortable way, the advert is set in a condom factory making it seem very clinical, and unappealing, the main person in the ad is Mrs. Dawson, a married, middle aged woman who works in the factory (Mrs. Dawson, 1991). This advert also talks about AIDs increasing condom use but it is ineffective in its methods of selling the product. From an advertising point of view it was difficult to advertise condoms as Dyer argued, “Advertisings function is to create desires that previously did not exist” (Dyer,

Shockingly all the young people said they would be more concerned about pregnancy. Despite the fact that certain STDs caused by viruses cannot be cured. If left untreated some STIs can leave the carrier infertile and may even be life threatening, although medication for HIV allows for a long life, if untreated it can lead to AIDs. In an article for The Independent, journalist Niamh Horan, on reviewing the tv show Pixie’s Sex Clinic, argues that Ireland is set to face a sexual crisis, comparing it to the financial crisis Ireland faced after the Celtic Tiger. The television doctor known as Pixie points out that in Ireland people became more liberated sexually in a short space of time compared to the United Kingdom. Like the financial crisis Ireland eventually had to deal with the consequences (Horan,