“Adam & Eve has always been about making sex safe, as well as making it more fun," Adam & Eve president Phil Harvey said. "I find it rewarding to see that we're still offering birth control through different means."
The condoms are manufactured by Australian firm Ensell and distributed by North Carolina’s Barnett International, which according to a spokesperson, has vending machines in all fifty states. Currently, the lightly-lubricated Lifestyles-type condoms Ensell manufactured for Adam & Eve are available in California, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Kansas, Alabama, Ohio and Wisconsin.
“Those states are a starting point,” A&E spokesperson Katy Zvolerin told XBiz. “This is a brand new venture for us, though we’ve been selling branded condoms for at least six years.”
Zvolerin said that each of the condom packages, which come in individual denominations, includes an offer for A&E couples-friendly DVDs featuring Tera Patrick, Chloe Jones and Ava Vincent. “This puts us in a different location,” she said, “where people can encounter our product in a new environment.”
Barnett International’s marketing director Vikram Sarin said that the company places vending machines in night clubs, bars, universities, gas stations and truck stops. “Wherever there is a social setting,” he told XBiz. He said that 70 percent of the company’s machine shelf space is devoted to condoms by Lifestyles and other Ensell products, with the remaining space being taken up by novelties, feminine hygiene products and over-the-counter medicines.
Both Zvolerin and Sarin said that the states targeted for last month’s rollout were not chosen for any reason other than convenience, and that if the vending machine concept catches on, A&E will expand to other states.
