Steve Mare was helpless. His carry-on bag had been singled out and an airport security officer was unzipping it, oblivious to what was about to be unveiled to the flock of travelers standing nearby.
As the guard discovered a large condom-laden plastic penis, Mare searched for words of clarification. When a three-pack of white condomswith a black top hat, stenciled eyes, pipe and red scarf adorning the packagethe company’s ode to Frosty the Snowman in honor of the holiday season, dropped to the floor, Mare couldn’t think of what to say. A rectangle case on a key chain, with a green condom stored inside and the words ‘Break in case of emergency’ printed on the front, dangled from the officer’s hand, and Mare just gave up. He didn’t say a word.
‘I decided to forgo any sort of explanation and just gave them my smiling pervert face,’ said Mare, laughing as he recounted his return from a safe sex presentation in 1996, his first year of working for Global Protection Corp.
Seven years later, Mare sits in the conference room of the company’s offices at Marine Industrial Park in Boston. He’s the sales and marketing manager of the burgeoning condom manufacturer and has no problem sharing his experiences there. Condoms are his work, his area of expertise.
‘It was weird to work here at first,’ Mare said. ‘But then it becomes routine. We sell products just like any other business, and there are competitors like any other business.’
And the venture is flourishing. Global Protection Corp. was recently included in Inc. magazine’s ‘Inner City 100’ as one of the country’s fastest-growing inner-city companies. Global shipped more than five million custom-imprinted condoms to over 1,000 companies last year.
The concept began in 1987 when Davin Wedel was a student at Tufts University and AIDS was first gaining national attention. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop began to spread the importance of condom use, but the public was slow to follow.
Meanwhile, Wedel had heard the complaints from fellow Tufts students. Condoms were embarrassing to buy, uncomfortable to wear and surrounded by social stigmas. Concerned by what he thought were ignorant attitudes, Wedel and a classmate seized an opportunity to promote safe sex on campusall they needed was an elephant.
Placing images of ‘Jumbo,’ the pachydermal Tufts mascot, inside condom matchbooks along with the slogan, ‘A Safe Jumbo is a Happy Jumbo,’ Wedel marketed his idea to the Tufts bookstore. The condoms flew off the shelves and a company was born in 1988 when Wedel moved his safe sex endeavors off campus.
‘The operation took an unpopular idea at the time and made it fun,’ Mare said. ‘Now, we continue that effort by combining cultural elements of enjoyment with condoms, so it’s not something that people are embarrassed about.’
Rock bands U2 and Aerosmith are among the musical acts that have utilized Global Protection’s unique marketing strategy. Kiss Kondomsthat’s not a typoare available, too.
Aside from customizing condoms for bands, movies and everything in between (trucking companies and airlines have also ordered their own varieties, playing off the theme of safety) Global Protection Corp. supplies non-profit organizations, like universities, county health departments and Planned Parenthood with their prophylactic needs. The company distributed over 10 million condoms to 2,000 health agencies across the country last year, free of charge.
Retail sales have also become a growing component of Global Protection Corp.’s success. Although Trojan is responsible for 70 percent of the condoms on the market, Global Protection Corp. is attempting to narrow the gap. It has produced the only FDA-approved glow in the dark condom.
Although the products are initially formed in countries like Thailand, due to their proximity to rubber trees, the Global Protection Corp. headquarters takes care of the rest. Put on a hairnet and check it out for yourself. Bags and bags of rolled condoms, resembling tiny circles of dough, sit before a conveyer belt. Workers carefully separate them onto the moving ribbon, checking for inconsistencies. A 55-gallon drum of silicone then automatically squirts a long drop of lubricant into each condom, a machine seals a wrapper around each one, and a roller perforates the edges. This process produces 7,000 condoms per minute.
Every single condom is prepared and tested on site. After the condoms are lubricated and sealed, they undergo a ‘package integrity test.’ Rolls of the wrapped products are placed inside of a vacuum pump. It sucks the air out of the finished condoms, blowing them up like bags of chips on an airplane. If any of them deflate, due to a miniscule hole allowing air into the supposedly secure latex, the entire lot is discarded.
Global Protection’s mission is simple: integrate condoms and popular culture to help prevent unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases.
One alien-themed key chain urges its owner to ‘Take me to your wiener.’ A cow on the front of a package urges users to be ‘Udderly safe.’ In a tribute to St. Patrick’s Day, a condom in the shape of a lollipop reads ‘Four Leaf Cover.’
‘I thought of that one myself. I’m very proud of it,’ said Mare, who spends time with fellow employees thinking up the clever catchphrases and marketing ideas, such as ‘Jimmy,’ the yellow condom mascot that beams proudly from most company advertisements.
The relaxed attitude that is prevalent at Global Protection Corp. does not obscure the seriousness of its cause. In a national survey, 63 percent of 14-21 year-olds engaged in sexual intercourse, but only 50 percent of them used a condom. AIDS is the second leading cause of death among Americans between the ages of 25 and 44.
‘Condom use is more widespread now than when we started, but there is still an embarrassing, hesitant attitude toward it,’ Mare said. ‘That has to change.’
While a handful of conservative groups would like to see the prevalence of condoms change, Mare said he sees his company’s role as serving a valuable purpose in a sexually active world.
‘Our products do not promote sex, they promote responsibility,’ Mare said. ‘We do not represent that condoms eliminate all risk from sexual activity. They do, however, provide the best protection available for those who choose to be sexually active.’
This is an account occasionally used by the Daily Free Press editors to post archived posts from previous iterations of the site or otherwise for special circumstance publications. See authorship info on the byline at the top of the page.
