I recently learned of an interesting ringtone campaign to promote condom use in India. Created by The BBC World Service Trust (and funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation) “Condom Acapella” hopes to break down walls and shatter taboos about condoms which have lived in Indian culture for decades.
Listen to “Condom Acapella.”
So, can ringtone social campaigns REALLY create healthy behavior change? Well, according to statistics, they sure have the capability to – if done the right way.
Ethan Zuckerman, author of “Why Cell Phones May Be the Most Important Technical Innovation of the Decade” points out that mobile phone penetration “vastly exceeds internet usage.”
According to him, in China – in 2005, there were 350 million mobile phone users, and 100 million internet users and by 2010 there will be an estimated 3.3 billion mobile phone users worldwide.
Think about it, in many parts of the world, the mobile phone isn’t simply replacing landlines, it is allowing people to have a personal communications channel for the first time in their lives. I guess that mobile phone sitting in my purse is whole heck of a lot more powerful than I ever imagined.
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