Josh continue their humour-based campaign for Josh condoms, with a new TVC highlighting a young man’s awkward attempts to buy a condom at his local grocery store, being too embarrassed to ask for one.

Trying to hide what he actually is there to buy, he instead asks the shopkeeper for a hat, an umbrella, plastic bag and balloon. He fails in conveying his real meaning, leading to more embarrassment and drawing more attention to his demand. Upon realising what he’s being asked for, the shopkeeper knowingly remarks, “when I ask for a cup of tea I don’t ask for flavoured hot water.”

Josh’s latest campaign continues the brand’s successful strategy of using humour and innuendo to tackle the sensitivities associated with marketing and advertising contraceptives and family planning in a conservative market such as Pakistan. While previous campaigns employed a mix of humorous dialogues, evocative visuals and music to promote their products implicitly, this campaign takes it a step further.

Through their Josh maango josh se campaign, the brand cleverly uses humour to portray the awkwardness of a young man trying to buy contraceptives without using the word “condom” and the confusion of a shopkeeper failing to understand what his customer is asking for. After the message is finally understood, the shopkeeper hands him his Josh packet, boldly proclaiming, “Josh mango josh se [Ask for Josh with passion]”.

In a 30 second TVC, Josh is able to tackle what, arguably, would be one of the key pain points in the consumer cycle when purchasing any family planning product – the reluctance of customers, due to societal and cultural reasons to go up to the counter at a shop and ask for Josh – or any – condom brand. Through humour, Josh is able to highlight a situation many contraceptive customers find themselves in; the fear of judgement if they directly ask for the product. By ending with the shopkeeper’s puzzled reaction and declaration, the brand emphasises that customers should not feel ashamed that they are buying a condom and should ask for it at the counter, like any other product they purchase.

This ad is effective because of the simplicity with which Josh pinpoint a key customer concern and help people overcome it. By employing humour, Josh have managed to craft a new campaign for Josh that engages audiences and conveys a key brand message that buying condoms ought not to devolve into a round of the board game Taboo between shopkeeper and customer.

This content has been produced in paid partnership with DKT Pakistan.