CHICAGO — One of the oddities of gay newspapers is that while their news and feature stories repeatedly stress the importance of condoms for safe sex, they never run any condom ads. Condom manufacturers have rebuffed every overture, often claiming they just don’t have the budget to advertise in gay papers, said Todd Evans, president and CEO of the Rivendell Marketing Co., a media rep firm used by more than 200 local gay and lesbian newspapers and publications.
"It just makes no sense because since the early 1980s, the biggest users of condoms has been the gay market," said William Waybourn, president of Window Media LLC, which publishes The Washington (D.C.) Blade and four other gay newspapers. Now, at long last, the biggest condom brand has committed to an ad schedule in two national gay magazines, Michael Wilke reported in his online column on gay advertising, "The Commercial Closet. "Trojan, which has some 68 per cent share of the condom market, is advertising its Trojan Personal Lubricant in The Advocate and Out magazines under the theme "Slipperier when wet."
Tracy Baim, publisher of the Windy City Times weekly in Chicago, said she is hopeful the national ads will trickle down to local papers: "Here it is 2002 and gay papers have IBM and major banks as advertisers — all these conservative institutions have hit the gay market before the condom companies."

Both computer buyers and sellers have reason to be happy. With the price of computers hitting new lows, sales are up marginally in the first half of this fiscal compared to last year. Although no clear numbers are available yet, there are enough indications of the rise in offtake.

Assembled computers have never been so affordable and the prices will continue to slide for quite some time, market experts say, adding that the offtake is marginally up this year. A computer with top-of-the-line configuration (Pentium4 2GB processor, 128 MB RAM, 40 GB hard disk with all standard components) can be brought home for anywhere between Rs. 30,000 and Rs. 35,000. A system with a comparable configuration used to cost between Rs. 35,000 and
Rs. 40,000 last year.

The main reason for the fall in prices—to the tune of
Rs. 5,000 per computer in the last two to three quarters—is the substantial reduction in prices of peripherals like monitors, hard disks, keyboards, etc. Even the prices of optional add-ons like CD-ROMs, UPS and deskjet printers have plunged in the last few months.

Market sources also point out that the total cost of ownership for a computer has also come down substantially as the add-on peripherals like printers and UPS systems are much cheaper now.

Increased competition from AMD processors and the Linux operating system in a market that was almost monopolised by Intel and Microsoft, is also bringing down the prices.

Come Deepawali and HBO will present a blockbuster to begin the festive season on the channel. Gladiator, the movie which won five Ackademy Awards is the attraction on Diwali night. Claims HBO, "The promotions are huge and the time is apt".

Why Gladiator at this time? Says Shruti Bajpai, Director, Marketing, HBO South Asia, "This is a time when people are in a relaxed, festive and enjoyable mood. So this period and movie…I personally loved the movie and I don’t see any reason why people won’t like it." Well, that is something we have to wait and watch.

But yes, the company claims that the promotions for the movie are huge. And for the first time they are airing a contest, ‘Home to Rome’ on the channel, which started on the 20th of October and will run till the 10th of November. "We are promoting it in six cities across the country through print, radio, outdoors, cross TV promotion, theatres and the Net", adds Bajpai. The list of six cities includes Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad.

On the contest, Bajpai says: "The contest, which we will be running is different from the normal contest where you have 1st, 2nd and the 3rd prizes. Here we have 16 tickets to Rome as prizes." She adds, "we have especially chosen Rome as the prize destination as we want the people to go and experience the place where this movie was made." Contest2win is the online partner. The TV channels which will be used for promoting this line up include Discovery and MTV. The channel believes that this will be the ‘most significant promotion of the year.’