Brazilian condom company Olla has found a novel way of promoting its product while also scaring the stuffing out of young men: sending them Facebook friend requests from their potential progeny with the tag ”Avoid unexpected surprises like this. Use Olla condoms.”

Take a look at the video below which describes how Olla’s ad agency AGE Isobar created the campaign:



Now there is some debate about whether this is an intelligent tech-savvy approach to getting sexually active young men using condoms, or if it constitutes a violation of privacy (and, indeed, Facebook’s Terms and Conditions).

Indeed one YouTube user commented on the ad page:

That’s not advertising. It's spammish behaviour. No brand shall friend request me, without a life time hatred called upon them.

Others, though, think it’s a good idea:

You should appreciate the creative thinking and take it as humour. It's not spamming.

This isn’t the first time companies have sort to use social media beyond the usual banner ads we have become familiar with. For instance last year KLM Airlines began using passenger’s social networking profiles to tailor special free gifts and has since looked at other unique ways to use social media to engage with customers.

However, Olla condoms seems to be going one further here. It is specifically pushing its product through Facebook in a way that, by its nature, is hard to ignore.

care2.com