The archive · PR & Stunts · Marketing decision · 2024
Tulipán sells sex as economic stimulus — Spring Day discount platform wins Gran Ojo PR
Argentina's condom brand reframed sex as economic stimulus — a 20-brand Spring Day discount platform won El Ojo's PR Grand Prix.
Tulipán Argentina (Kopelco)
What it had to solve
Tulipán, Argentina's condom and intimate-gels brand, has owned Spring Day (Día de la Primavera) for years with humorous prevention messages. In the 2024 recession the mood was grim and young people's dating budgets were shrinking.
How it works
In September 2024, Argentina was deep in recession and the national conversation was full of calls to 'reactivate the economy'. Tulipán, a local condom and intimate-gels brand, answered with a literal reading: 'teniendo sexo podemos reactivar la economía' — by having sex, we can reactivate the economy.
The joke was built on a real behavior. Around Spring Day, the brand's traditional moment, young people spend on haircuts, outfits, dinner, cinema and hotels before a date. Zurda Agency turned that chain into a platform: 20+ brands from food, fashion, beauty, delivery and entertainment offered discounts for each stage, gathered at tulipan.com.ar/primavera.
It was humor with a job to do. The brand had always used Spring Day to teach sexual care with a smile; here the prevention message came wrapped in a patriotic, mildly naughty economic plan. The mix of taboo, crisis and discounts made the campaign impossible to ignore.
El Ojo 2024 awarded it the Gran Ojo PR, an Oro in Health & Pharma, three Oros and three Platas in Film, plus silvers in Media, Direct and Creative Commerce.
Why it lands
- It adopted the nation's own slogan, so the campaign felt timely and local rather than imported.
- Sex talk earned attention, while the platform gave the joke a real utility: actual discounts.
- 20+ partner brands multiplied reach and made every category part of the story.
- The prevention message stayed intact inside the humor, keeping the brand's heritage.
What it did
El Ojo 2024 gave the campaign the Gran Ojo PR, an Oro in Health & Pharma, three Oros and three Platas in Film, plus silvers in Media, Direct and Creative Commerce — turning a taboo subject into national conversation.
What you can take
Borrow the country's own anxious vocabulary: by putting a playful taboo at the service of a shared worry — the economy — Tulipán turned a discount platform into earned media and festival gold.
Since then
Tulipán repeated the same platform idea for Spring Day 2025 — the follow-up picked up a silver and a bronze in Eficacia at El Ojo 2025 — showing the franchise had become an annual ritual rather than a one-off gag.
Sources
- Zurda y Tulipán coronados con El Gran Ojo PR
- El Ojo PR 2024 – finalistas y ganadores
- La idea de Tulipán para 'reactivar la economía'
- El sexo reactiva la economía – Tulipán Argentina
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