Trojan brand condoms recently premiered a new, controversial ad campaign that features a ritzy bar full of thin, beautiful women and giant, personified pigs. When one pig heads to the men's room and purchases a Trojan condom from a vending machine, he transforms into a fetching young man.

When he returns to the bar, a radiant blonde's interest level in him switches from mildly disgusted apathy to seductive coquetry - the sexual nature of her smile is enough for the viewer to infer what happens later. The commercial ends with the word "evolve" on a black screen with the Trojan logo below it.

The message? Men who refuse to use condoms are pigs, and women will appreciate and respect a man who is prepared for safe sex.

Trojan claims the ad campaign aims at increasing condom use to make sex safer, to encourage the U.S. to evolve into a sexually healthy nation. Single, sexually active Americans between the ages of 18-54 only use latex condoms about 25 percent of the time, according to Trojanevolve.com, the Web site by Trojan that corresponds with the ad campaign.

"We have to change the perception that carrying a condom for women or men is a sign they're on the prowl and just want to have sex," Linda Kaplan Thaler, chief executive of the Kaplan Thaler Group, the New York advertising agency that created the "Evolve" campaign, told The New York Times. "It's a sign of somebody being prepared - if the opportunity arises - to think about their own health and the health and safety of their partner."

But, while Trojan's sexual health concerns are valid and the intended message is positive and important, the ad campaign missed the mark.

The Trojan Evolve Web site claims we can't become sexually healthy until we revolutionize the way we think and talk about sex and sexual health, but both the TV commercial and corresponding print ad do nothing more than advocate stereotypes and sexual promiscuity among the nation's young adults.

Clearly, the men, or pigs in the commercial, are on the prowl and the women appear to be willing to jump into bed with the first attractive man they meet - as long as he uses a condom.

If safe sex was that easy, sexually transmitted infections and unplanned pregnancies might be a thing of the past by now.

Considerably more goes into choosing a partner than whether or not he or she uses protection. The fact that the commercial is set in a sleek, upper-middle-class bar full of gorgeous and ethnically diverse Barbie dolls speaks volumes about how the U.S. image of sexuality in media hasn't changed at all.

Real intimacy doesn't start in a bar, and true healthy sexual relationships don't happen in one night. Sex is a commitment that carries some weighty risks, and simply using a condom as a fix-all to prevent pregnancy and disease is not always enough.

Trojan is right to promote a wider use of condoms - the idea both increases its own business and encourages condom use among people who may not use them currently. But the ads suggest condom use is the prerogative of males only, and safe sex should be a shared effort and a shared awareness.

Both Fox and CBS refused to run the ads, but ABC, NBC and nine cable networks will run them. The print ads will appear in 11 magazines and seven Web sites. Fox claimed it rejected the ad because contraceptive advertising should address health-related topics, instead of pregnancy prevention, and representatives from CBS called the ad simply inappropriate for the network.

The commercial is inappropriate - but not because of the necessary sexual nature of the topic. Sex pervaded the U.S.'s popular culture long ago and avoiding the topic in an ad aimed at sexual activity would be silly.

Sexuality should be a more open topic in a nation trying to achieve gender equality, but the Trojan ads only feed into preconceived and antiquated ideas of what's "normal."

The Trojan Evolve Web site claims it wants to "wake people up to the idea that valuing themselves means choosing partners who value them." But finding a partner who values you involves more than simply finding the only guy in the bar willing to use protection.

Men aren't pigs, and women aren't simply pretty trophies sitting on bar stools waiting to be taken home. Until Trojan can create an ad campaign that gives both men and women the respect they deserve, Trojan's valid, underlying message will fall to the wayside.