Marketing when the rubber hits the . . .

I hope you'll forgive me, but I want to unroll this post slowly.

Really good marketing is about finding a new way to get people to think about a product. Interruption advertising was enough in the 1950s, when the world was glued to its television sets, but in the 21st century people are pretty much desensitized to that tactic. A firm marketing strategy doesn't necessarily need to stretch the truth, but it should find a new dimension to talk about.

That's why I'm terribly impressed by the FitKit, which can be downloaded or ordered by malemail by anyone interested in buying custom-sized condoms. It's great in a bunch of different ways.

• It's a product that still automatically generates a head-turn just by marketing it
• They've identified a biological fact that other manufacturers have largely ignored (my college sex ed professor liked to pull one over her foot and up to her knee to show that none of her students were too big to use one), despite clear evidence that there is an unmet need
• They point out that a properly-sized condom is less likely to fail and is more likely to be worn in the first place
• They use a sizing system that doesn't automatically play into male competitiveness, because it's not sequential (although every guy, and some women, that I've showed it to were curious how I measured up)

This campaign downplays titillation, which is good because we know that sex sells and that it's more effective if the rest of us make the jokes. It promotes birth control and disease prevention. It provides an opportunity for privacy, a far cry from the days when a visit to the drugstore could be a blessing or a curse.