An Argentinian company has created a new type of condom which requires two people to open it, in a bid to highlight the issues around consent. 

The ‘Consent Pack’ of condoms was designed by ad agency BBDO Argentina for Tulipan, a sex toy and condom company, and is only openable by four hands which are required to press four buttons at the same time. 

The marketing surrounding the new creation focuses in on consent, with tag lines like ‘if it’s not a yes, it’s a no’ and ‘without consent there is no pleasure.’

But as the marketing campaign went global on Twitter, some women in the UK and the US have picked flaws in the idea, and pointed out some sinister observations. 

Journalist Holly Baxter tweeted: “OK so I have seen and taken the piss out of a LOT of products in my time but the Consent Condom is definitely the worst one I’ve seen in 2019 so far. Doubt that many potential rapists are going to be foiled by this…

“The worrying thing is that this frames consent as a ‘discussion’ and implies that the real issue is that women might make it up/exaggerate after consensual sex. This is a product designed essentially to protect men from rape accusations, not to protect women from rape.

“I feel like we see this a lot when we talk about consent - products and strategies devised (usually by men) which address the problem of ‘women saying they get raped’ rather than ‘women experiencing sexual assault’. I know it’s an ad agency gimmick but that still matters.”

Another Twitter user said: “Bloody hell. Making condoms harder to use isn’t going to encourage consent!!”

While another agreed: “Stunned at this. This doesn’t prove consent in the first place, and consent can change at any time before or after a condom is opened. How have they not thought this through?”

Although marketing campaigns can try and stylistically highlight the problems surrounding consent, the real problem, as explained by these women, is not something that a fancy new type of condom can fix.

This is something that needs to be addressed in society and in education, to teach young boys that they do not have any sort of right over women. 

We wish that something like the need for consent could be taught or enforced by a new type of condom, but sadly it can’t. So it’s important we don’t forget that, and continue to emphasise this to the men and boys around us. 

Images: Getty / Instagram