Build Durexhibit into your course

Give your students the chance to
win £500 and see their work
displayed and publicised nation-wide.

What is Durexhibit?

Durexhibit is a competition, open to young people aged between 16 and 24, to create a poster which will persuade their peers to use a condom, rather than take chances with unprotected sex.

Why is Durexhibit important?

The incidence of sexually transmitted infections continues to go up, particularly among young people. Early results from the National Chlamydia Screening Programme suggest that as many as one in ten of 16 – 24 year olds are infected.

Tutors' kit

New diagnoses of Chlamydia 2006

Diagnoses of selected STIs by region, sex and age group. United Kingdom: 1997 – 2006
Health Protection Agency, July 2007.

Unplanned pregnancy among young people is a significant problem too, more so in the UK than any other country in Europe, and while the number of teenage pregnancies is declining, this is only happening very slowly.

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Teenage pregnancy rates 2001-2005

Office for National Statistics and Teenage Pregnancy Unit, 2007
ISD Scotland National Statistics 2006. www.isdscotland.org
Wales in Figures. Statistical Directorate of the Welsh Assembly Government. www.wales.gov.uk

Despite this high incidence of STIs and teenage pregnancies, young people continue to take chances with their sexual health.

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People not routinely using condoms (%)

Department of Health. Contraception and Sexual Health 2003.

A lot more useful background information about the issues of STIs and unplanned pregnancy is available on the internet, at sites such as:

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What will Durexhibit do to help?

Although the Government and other bodies produce periodic campaigns to address the problems of STIs and teenage pregnancies, infection levels continue to rise and the decline in teenage pregnancy rates is slow.

So, there is clearly more that can be done.

Your students will have their own opinions about how to make an effective campaign and Durexhibit is designed to harness this creative power. It will look for messages which resonate with 16-24 year olds by letting them express – in their own language – how they would make the case for avoiding unprotected sex through:

  • The posters themselves, capturing their ideas in their own language
  • A short statement accompanying each entry, explaining the rationale behind the idea
  • The votes and opinions of others in the age group which will be captured in a comments page accompanying each poster

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Getting your students involved

All your students can become involved with Durexhibit – whether they want to design a poster or simply vote and express their opinions on the entries they see.

  • Discuss Durexhibit
    To help you explain Durexhibit to your students we have produced a brief PowerPoint presentation outlining the main points of the competition.
  • Explain the challenge
    The Durexhibit challenge is to design an A4 poster which will persuade their peers to use a condom, rather than take chances with unprotected sex.

    There are no restrictions on technique or style, but to facilitate the display and judging of entries on the Durexhibit website they need to fit the Durexhibit design guidelines.

    Every entry must be accompanied by a brief (100 words max) statement explaining the thinking behind the entry and its relation to research findings.

    All entries must also conform to the Advertising Standards Authority rule of being ‘Legal, Decent, Honest and Truthful.’ (www.asa.org.uk) Obscene or offensive entries will not be accepted.
  • Point them to www.durexhibit.co.uk
    The site contains a full brief, the design guidelines, the competition rules and details on how to enter and vote on other entries.

    Entries, together with their statement, should be uploaded to durexhibit.co.uk at any time between early October 2007 and 14 January 2008. There is no entry fee.
  • Encourage them to enter as soon as they can
    Although entries can be submitted up to 14 January 2008, those submitted after 24 December 2007 may not be available for judging for the full 30 day period. The creators of the first 20 posters displayed on the site will receive a Durex Pleasure Pack.

    No limit is imposed on the number of posters each student can enter.
  • Visit the site regularly
    To extend your student’s involvement with Durexhibit regular visits to the site can be used to generate further discussion, using new posters appearing on the site as a starting point.

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The judging process

The selection process will be as follows:

  • Initial assessment
    All posters will undergo a brief initial assessment to ensure they comply with the competition rules. If any posters are rejected at this stage the entrant will be e-mailed with a brief explanation of why, giving them an opportunity to rethink and resubmit their idea.
  • On-line voting and comments
    Visitors to the site can rate each poster’s potential impact. (To make sure voters are from the target audience, and to prevent multiple voting, prospective voters will have to register.)

    Visitors will be asked to vote on the basis of how effective the poster is likely to be, not just on how creative it is. They will also be able to enter comments on each poster on the Durexhibit comments page.

    Each poster will be available for voting for 30 days, after which it will be added to the poster archive. To encourage the maximum voter participation, the first 100 voters to recruit 10 new voters will receive a Durex Pleasure Pack.
  • Vote on the shortlist
    At the end of January a shortlist of the 20 highest scoring entries will be put up on the Durexhibit website for two weeks, from which the final overall winner will be chosen by on-line voting.

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What can they win?

There will only be one outright winner. As well as a prize of £500 cash and £200 of Durex products, the winner will receive considerable publicity for his or her work:

  • In Durex corporate publicity materials
  • On the Durex website, www.durex.co.uk
  • The winning poster will be publicised through a viral e-mail campaign
  • And may be used in a wider Durex campaign

The other 19 shortlisted entrants will win £100 of Durex products and have their work featured on the Durex website.

Full acknowledgement will also be given to winning students’ colleges or universities.

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Getting people involved

If you would like to involve other people both within your college or university and beyond, on this site you can find: