In India, truckers get their own condom brand

At last, a condom truckers can relate to.

Painted across the backs of the millions of highly decorated trucks tearing across the subcontinent is the curious phrase “Use Dipper at Night.” It means people should flash their high beams as they pass.

Just like the other catchphrase emblazoned on the bumpers of India’s often rickety road warriors “Horn OK Please,” the words are a warning that other drivers better make themselves as obvious as possible to avoid being squashed.

Hoping to promote safer sex, India’s largest truck maker Tata Motors and others have borrowed from the safety warning on trucks to promote a condom specifically to truckers. The condoms are called “Dipper” and cost only 3 cents each.

Tata joined up with the social wing of logistics and supply chain company Transport Corporation of India Ltd.–the TCI Foundation–and communications agency Rediffusion for a pilot project that sold 45,000 of the condoms at the foundation’s health centers for truckers.