Let’s Talk About Sex!
Let’s talk about sex, baby, Let’s talk about you and me
Let’s talk about all the good things and the bad things that may be…
Sex is supposed to be enjoyable, but it’s tough to have fun if you’re constantly worrying about how well you’re doing. Rates of sexual activity have been in decline for years, but the drop is most pronounced for adults under age 25 (Gen Z).
For Gen Z, a rise in sexlessness has coincided with a decline in mental health. Over the last few years, various university studies across the UK and US have suggested teenagers and young adults are having less sex than millennials and boomers, while headlines increasingly describe Gen Z (born between 1996 and 2012) as “sex-negative” and in the grips of a “sex recession”. In India, 59 per cent of the otherwise progressive Gen Z — aged between 18 and 24 years — feel shy initiating conversations around sex in a serious relationship.
As the Fall Semester ends, Shubham Kulkarni steps into the real world, from our Communication Design Class of 2024 at ISDI | Atlas and continues the trend of speculating design solutions. Shubham with a quirky twist addresses sexual performance anxiety (SPA) with a limited edition packaging speculated with ‘DUREX’.
A limited edition product-based packaging awareness initiative that seeks to boost and encourage the mindset of first-timers on their sexual journey by taking a friendly and communicative persona. The product revolves around a popularly branded condom ‘DUREX’ that speaks to the individual carrying or using it behaving as an effective bridge between the user and the act.
Sexual Performance Anxiety or SPA is a type of anxiety that affects sexual activity in particular. A person who has this condition will often be overcome by a fear of the inability to perform either before sexual activities or during them. It leads to a vicious cycle of troubles as one negative experience can have a mental effect preventing the next one from being better. Shubham Kulkarni keeps the undertone subtle targeting Gen Z’ while trying to address the issue around(SPA) with great sensitivity. Bringing awareness and helping individuals with SPA who are performing intercourse for the first time.
SPA has no single cause and is brought about by a range of biological, psychological and physiological factors.
Feeling anxious before sex is normal. However, feeling so nervous that you cannot have sex or enjoy sex might be sexual performance anxiety (SPA).
What does the solution aim to address?
Celebrating the individual self: Often there are a lot of self-doubts that occur before intercourse and there must exist a necessary means to bridge the gap between this mental state and the act of intercourse. It is necessary to encourage and make individuals feel proud of themselves and their bodies.
Bringing about Consent from both ends: Often performance anxiety occurs when a man or woman is unsure whether they are fully comfortable with the act or whether they’re doing it with the right person. It is important that the packaging conveys that both genders can show their consent even if they don't ask for it.
Making the first-time experience safe, easy and enjoyable: The visual language of the packaging is friendly and quirky to lighten the mood.
Tinder said that it commissioned a market survey of 1,500 Indian singles from 7 cities, across the 18–34 age group who own a smartphone. The study reveals that for 81 per cent of singles, sex is important in a relationship, and the importance increases as one gets older. In excuses for not having sex, men are more worried that someone will hear them getting cosy, which indicates that women are more forthcoming and are starting to care less. Not surprisingly, 8 out of 10 Indian single women have already had an excuse not to have sex, while the figure is 64 per cent for men.
There’s one for you: The Packaging also targets individuals who are homosexual and provides an inclusive approach towards looking at homosexual adult males who face performance anxiety. Thus the character interaction depicted in the packaging corresponds to gay individuals, couples and partners who have just begun their sexual journey. The need for condoms in Homosexual relationships is considered crucial due to the alarming increase in sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV, AIDS and other infections.
The mini-size condom packaging encourages appreciation of oneself and one’s sexual individuality through corresponding character personifications to one’s gender. It is made for the individuals buying it to identify their gender and themselves.
A conventional condom wrapper consists of two sides, the first side containing the logo of the brand and the back side, its date of manufacture, expiry till use and cost. Shubham Kulkarni brings in an intervention of the wrapper packaging by personifying it and giving instructions to its users who may or may not use it. These instructions are conveyed in a friendly manner with the use of humour in some places. The condom itself is talking and bridging the gap between the user and addressing the doubts that may arise when it comes to performing in bed! Due to a relatively conservative culture surrounding sex, an indirect and subtle tone often involving lighthearted humour and an ongoing campaign on social media is his best approach.
Disclaimer: All creatives are hypothetical classroom projects. All rights reserved — 2022- 2023
Creative Mentor: Utkarsha Malkar | Author | Design Thinker | Creator
A desire to understand the world and to improve it always remains at the core. Design is a managed process and my quest for knowledge is subject to an inquiry of the apparent, the imagined and the recalled. As I speculate and design, my liberty of self-expression is in direct correlation to my existence and knowledge.
