By Amy Zimmer
DNAinfo News Editor
UPPER EAST SIDE — New Yorkers who wouldn’t deign to send their offspring to public school should think twice about skipping out on the birth control, according to a new set of ads for a high-end condom company that include a list of tuition prices for the city's elite private schools.
It costs more than $30,000 a year to send a kid to some of New York’s elite private schools, including the Upper East Side’s Dalton ($35,300) and Chapin ($33,400). The schools' tuitions are being used as the ultimate reason for using birth control in a guerrilla advertising campaign launched last week by Sir Richard’s Condom Company.
But while the Colorado-based company's posters includes a list of Manhattan's top private schools, the ads aren't being posted anywhere near them. Instead, the ads line the streets of SoHo and Williamsburg, near the Paul Smith boutiques that sell a three-pack of Sir Richard's condoms for $6 and a dozen for $13 ($14 for extra large). The condoms are also being sold at Whole Foods.
"It’s targeted to the affluent or not-so-affluent New Yorkers who don’t wish to pay for the expenses of a kid — the people who shop at Paul Smith, like I did when I had disposable income before I had kids," said the campaign’s creative director Jonathan Schoenberg. "It’s fun to point out how expensive it’s gotten."
Schoenberg, a father of two, was born on the Upper East Side, where he attended Dalton until moving to the suburbs when he was 7 years old — because of the high cost of city private schools, he joked. He now lives in Colorado.
Officials from Dalton declined to comment on their former student's campaign.
The ads got mixed reviews when images of them were shown to the denizens of the Upper East Side.
"It’s really clever," said Chris Kuhn, 33, a trader who lives in Sutton Place and had a baby three weeks ago.
Becky and Elizabeth, sophomores from a private school — who said their East Side institution told them not to speak with reporters — were amused, but didn’t think private school parents would find it so cute.
"It’s kind of funny, but a little obscure," Becky, 16, said. "I’m not offended, but I could see how people would be."
"It’s a jab at private schools and the people who attend them and their money," said Elizabeth, 15. "There are definitely people who would take offense. It’s a blatant poke at private schools."
Patrick Jasienowski, 18, who works for a company that takes class pictures at private schools, has walked the halls of Manhattan's elite schools but never knew how much they cost, he said.
"I’m trying to save up for a car and these kids are going to school for that much," Jasienowski said, calling the ad "pretty hilarious."
But Joe Tirabassi, 25, who works on the Upper East Side and attended private school in his native city of Baltimore, called the campaign "crass."
"Having a kid is supposed to be a joyous thing, and they’re turning it into a number," he said, adding he had never heard of such a thing as a high-end condom.
Chris, a 25-year-old Upper East Sider who works as a trader, called it "silly" and said he wouldn’t have even realized it was a condom advertisement. "If you’re looking to have a kid, you would give them what’s best for them," he said of the high tuition cited in the ad.
Schoenberg hoped the private school ads would put some levity into condom buying. "If you walk into the store to buy condoms it’s super-creepy," he said. "Buying condoms shouldn’t be creepy. Sex shouldn’t be creepy."
He also wanted to differentiate his company’s upscale condom from what he felt were more "pharmaceutical" brand identities of Durex and Trojan. "If a fashion brand brought a condom to market, this is what it would feel like," Shoenberg said.
The condoms are considered "upscale" because of their pretty packaging, and because a portion of the proceeds go to a worthy cause. For every designer condom sold in the U.S., Sir Richard's will donate a (non-designer) condom to a developing country, starting with Haiti.
"We appeal to discerning, responsible individuals who seek to align their purchases with the change they want to see in the world. Doing good never felt better," reads a message on their website.
Williamsburg resident Brett Sittell, 28, didn’t think money was the scariest thing about bringing a child into the world. "It’s the kid itself," he said.
