While picking up some diapers at the pharmacy I noticed the adjacent, ironic placement of condoms in the same aisle.
I suppose as a medical professional who does his fair share of counseling about safe sex I should appreciate the not-so-subtle juxtaposition of products rimmed for pleasure and fitted for maximum absorption. Yet I couldn’t help feeling that I was being manipulated.
If I were buying condoms, would I feel that the smiling, freely pooping images of children staring back at me were a reinforcement of my good judgement to control fertility? Or might I think that despite my free choice to protect myself, some pharmacy overlord is righteously asserting the proper function of sex as a procreative process, the success or failure thereof determined by a higher power?
As a purchaser of diapers, should I chuckle at the implied commiseration of someone who thinks that maybe I should rethink my ability to raise a second child? Or should I frown, sensing that beautiful, smiling babies on the packaging have been cynically labeled as co-producers of unwanted bodily fluids?
I really don’t know what to think, except that somebody certainly wants me to think something.
What do you think?
I think you thought about it a bit too much.
I’d like to take the conspiracy theory one step further and point out that the baby faces staring back at customers (who might be trying to decide on whether or not to buy condoms) are black.
I think the person stocking the shelves has a penchant for irony and chuckling behind closed doors.
I think the juxtaposition is pretty concise. You could wear condoms, or you could be a parent. Those are the choices. I don’t think it was intentional, although I wouldn’t be surprised if some employees enjoyed it.
It reminds me of about 15 years ago when I was still working as a DM in a retail chain. I was standing talking to one of the clerks and looking directly down the aisle where the condoms were displayed. I saw a young teenager about 14 years old slip a box into his jacket pocket. Our policy was that they had to actually leave the store before you could approach them about stealing. Oh man, I did not want to call the cops on this kid and yet I certainly couldn’t just stand by and pretend I didn’t see what I had seen. I followed him outside and then I stopped him and told him I had seen him put that box of condoms in his jacket. “Can I just give them back to you and we can forget about it?” he asked me. Well no, we couldn’t do that. So I gave him a choice. Either I call the cops or we call his parents. Of course he opted for coming back in the store and I called his father. When his Dad arrived I allowed them private time in the office. Eventually the kid went to the car and his Dad bought the condoms. The dad was sweating buckets with the realization that his little boy was becoming a young man regardless of if Dad wanted him to or not. Not sure why your story reminded me of that but it did.
I just love this picture; I think this is absolutely hilarious! If you getting diapers you might pick up some condoms and think to yourself now if I had just had these 15 months ago…LOL! Ounce of prevention…
I thought this photo was just as humorous.
http://commatop.blogspot.com/2012/09/if-dad-needs-these-hes-definitely.html
I’ve seen diet pills next to potato chips at the market.
I think it’s probably intended to be funny, and yet a lot of women use condoms as their birth control between children because they don’t want to be on hormonal medications. It makes sense to me that somebody could be in the market for both items, but in reality I’ve never seen them juxtaposed in the store. The baby products get their own aisle and the condoms are usually with all of the fertility monitors, pregnancy tests, and lubes, and all of that is usually near the pharmacy so as to discourage shoplifting since most of it is expensive and easier to pocket.