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Monday, Dec 3, 2012 6:44 PM UTC

“Condom ambulance” coming to a campus near you

A college sophomore's condom delivery start-up wants to make safe sex cool -- and convenient

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Topics: Sex, safe sex, public health, reproductive health, stds, Sex Education, Abstinence, , ,

There’s not much need to leave the house these days. Seamless brings you sushi during a superstorm, Amazon delivers books to your doorstep and Netflix ensures that you never read them. For those curious about the next big thing in our increasingly stationary consumer culture, look no further than the Condom Ambulance, a condom delivery service for your latest sex emergency.

Launched by College of New Jersey sophomore and interactive multimedia major Kyle McCabe, the Condom Ambulance will get you good and prophylactic-ed within minutes of placing your order by phone, text or Web. After a customer fills out the order form, provides an on-campus location and signs a waiver, McCabe hurries over with your order — $3 for one condom, and up to 10 for $15 — and discreetly slips it under your door. The website promises: you’ve gone from “kissing, to condoms, to sexy-time in mere seconds.”

McCabe’s motivation for starting the Condom Ambulance isn’t purely financial, as he told his campus newspaper, the Signal.

“I would rather people who were not prepared call me … rather than make a bad decision. … That’s the reason I started this, not just for making money, for helping people.”

But not everyone is crazy about McCabe’s entrepreneurial spirit. He recently found that a number of the posters advertising the service had been torn down. McCabe suspects the culprits are students from an abstinence-only student group, but he wonders what all of the fuss is about. “I don’t know why the contraceptive thing is even an issue. I’m just trying to help people.”

With nearly half of the 19 million new STD cases each year happening among young people aged 15–24, the Condom Ambulance seems less like a gimmick and more like a genuine public health service. On a recent weekend, the Condom Ambulance received 15 orders, but for a campus population of more than 6,000, it’s clear there’s a lot more ground to, ahem, cover.

(H/T Buzzfeed)

Katie McDonough is an assistant editor for Salon, focusing on lifestyle. Follow her on Twitter @kmcdonovgh or email her at kmcdonough@salon.com. More Katie Mcdonough.

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