Abstract

The condom market expanded significantly during the Fascist period. How could the industrial production of condoms coexist with the demographic imperatives of the regime? What was the circulation and who were the target audiences for advertising of such a «prohibited product»? What were the main advertising characteristics? By analysing condoms advertising published in «Il farmacista italiano», the official journal of the «Sindacato nazionale fascista farmacisti», the essay reconstructs the evolution of the communication strategies that, in the second half of the 1930s, transformed the sale of condoms into an autarkic imperative and a patriotic duty for the «defense of the race». The analysis brings out the specific circuits of advertising for condoms, which did not aim directly at the consumer, but at an exclusive recipient: the pharmacist. As a health professional and retailer at the same time, the pharmacist had a direct link with the clientele, and so became the human pivot of the advertising process