It’s not a gift unless you wrap it wins the Express Safe Sex competition for Sophie and Po

Media Design School creative advertising students Sophie Burton (artdirector) and Po Tanner (copywriter) have just won the Express Safe Sex compfor 2010.


Theircampaign, titled ‘It’s not a Gift unless you Wrap It’ is targeted atyoung gay men, advocating the use of condoms as part of the safe sexmessage. 

The campaign turns magazine ads into three different types of candy-coloured gift wrapping paper, printed withrisqué yet thought-provoking images.

Course leader Kate Humphries says that the idea is to deliver the safesex message in a way that’s sexual and playful – so their targetaudience can relate to it – but also to make it empowering at the sametime.”The team based theiridea on the insight that these young guys are at the stage of theirlives whenthey want to experiment and play around a bit.”The first magazine ad using this campaign is due on December 15. Theidea also allows for the use of ambient gift-wrapping stands in bars,just in time for the Christmas giftwrapping season.



The team’s prize package includes having their ad campaignpublished in Express magazine and an Adobe Creative Suite 5 Design Premium.Another student entry from Media Design School also made the finals – acampaign by Jules Ferrier (art director) and Jennie Liddel (copywriter) dubbed ‘Facebookpoked’, which uses the ‘poke’ function of the social media site to illustratehow easy it is for HIV to spread.