Two visual communication students created video game-themed condom packaging which promotes safe sex as being fun.

The Play condom packaging references different video games including Super Mario Bros., Donkey Kong, and The Legend of Zelda, each using a different sexual innuendo to refer to the type of condom it holds. Six different types are included in a box modeled after a Game Boy with the expiration date of the condoms listed as their “Game Over”date.

Ben Marsh, one of the packaging’s co-creators, explains on his website that the project revolved around the concept of fun.

“The packaging aims create a desire to purchase the product for aesthetic reasons, rather than the necessity of condoms,” Marsh said. “Simply by owning the product, safe sex is promoted.”

A colorful leaflet is included within the box and depicts how to use the condoms in pixelated visuals similar to 8-bit video game graphics. It also uses video game terminology to explain each step, or “level”, of the process.

Marsh said the leaflet promotes safe sex through fun rather than lecture.

It portrays a humorous narrative parallel between sex, and the levels in a game,” Marsh said. “The game, which includes the use of a condom, appears fun. It does not lecture, not talk down to, simply encourages safe sex in a fun message that talks in a true, youthful voice.”

Marsh and co-creator Julia Roach said they chose a video game theme because they thought something fun and appealing to them would also appeal to others.

“Ben and I both agreed our work is something we would like to own ourselves, knowing if we liked it, others our age would too,” Roach said. “This was great fun as, in essence, we were able to design for ourselves, which is always good.”

Marsh said the packaging could motivate people to buy condoms whether or not they are having sex.

“If these were around when I was at school, I would have wanted to get hold of them,” Marsh said. “I think the fact that people could want to own these, regardless of the actual necessity of condoms, is awesome.”

Roach said the concept could be applied to drug-abuse awareness and other campaigns, “the stuff young adults bore of hearing from an older voice.”