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• Feb 13, 2008 6:06 pm US/Eastern
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  NYC Unveils Official 'Get Some' Condom Campaign

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NYC Unveils Official 'Get Some' Condom Campaign

Street Teams To Hand Out At Major City Hubs; Subway Ads Hung Across The City

NEW YORK (CBS/AP) ― New York City spruced up its relentless safe sex ad campaign, urging New Yorkers to "get some" on Valentine's Day.

Get some condoms, that is.

Subway ads displaying the new slogan will be plastered about the city and across city buses, with a television and radio campaign to hit the airwaves soon.

Street teams will be handing out free condoms at busy hubs around the city on Thursday, including Times Square, Wall Street and near City Hall.

"We want to give away as many condoms as people will use because we're trying to make New York City an even safer place to have sex, and this is a powerful way to do it," said Monica Sweeney, the Health Department's assistant commissioner for HIV prevention and control.

The city has made free condoms available for years, but last year revamped the package with a distinct look to encourage usage.

The first design was a black wrapper stamped with the letters "NYC CONDOM" in the same font and bright colors used on city subway maps and signs.

Since it was launched a year ago, the Health Department has handed out more than 36 million condoms, or an average of 3 million each month.

Before the condom wrapper was redesigned, the city typically gave away 1.5 million condoms monthly.

The free condom initiative is part of the city's effort to reduce rates of sexually transmitted diseases and unplanned pregnancies. About 100,000 of New York's 8.2 million residents have HIV or AIDS, and many more are diagnosed each year.

The new design unveiled Wednesday features the letters "NYC" in black, inside three adjoining white circles. Underneath the "NYC" is the word "CONDOM," with each letter in a different color. The wrapper is still black and the condom inside, from the Lifestyles brand, is the same.

Designer Yves Behar, founder of the San Francisco-based agency, fuseproject, created the wrapper's new look, which he said he wanted to be friendly and unintimidating.

The city said new condom dispensers, also designed by Behar, will be available for establishments that wish to distribute the condoms.

Currently, about 900 establishments -- some restaurants, bars and salons but mostly nonprofit groups -- offer the condoms, Sweeney said.

Last year, the city's condom campaign angered New York's top Catholic leaders, who said Mayor Michael Bloomberg's administration was promoting promiscuity by "blanketing our neighborhoods with condoms."

(© 2008 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

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