Condom Ad Comes Down to Taste

University of New Hampshire officials were not pleased but, aside from issuing a critical statement, they have taken no action against the student newspaper for running a condom ad. \n Not just any condom ad, mind you. This one was a fold-down insert for Lifestyle condoms. When fully unfolded, the ad displayed a scantily-clad man and woman and the headline: "How 2 Have More Fun in Bed." \n That, according to university officials, pushes the edge of decency, and would have been better off unpublished. \n Rebecca Mahoney, editor of the student paper, New Hampshire, said if she had to do it over again, she would do the exact same thing. She called it an act of free speech and free press. \n Mahoney also said the ad might not be appropriate in some publications, such as The New York Times or the Boston Globe, but it was perfectly suited to a college audience. College students see so many ads every day in which sex is used to sell products, they have become more used to sexual imagery and are not as easily offended by it as the general public, the editor said. \n Faculty advisor Lisa Miller supported the publication of the ad, though she didn't see it in advance. \n Student body vice president Cora Cummings said she favored messages that urged safe sex but was not sure the ad fell into that category. \n The ad inspired some debate about its underlying message. Newspaper staff members said the ad was a statement in favor of safe sex. A college spokesman said it merely pushed sex. \n "The insert was inappropriate and distasteful for a number of reasons," J. Gregg Sanborn, executive assistant to university president Joan Leitzel, told a reporter. "It's promoting sex and, more importantly, while the primary audience is students, we all know the paper is available and could be read by anyone."