Over the last few months, the word normal has been bandied around frequently, by people longing to get back to it and brands keen to promote it. Yet rather than rush back to business as usual many consumers are seeing this as a moment of reset, as an opportunity to reappraise what normal looked like and examine whether it’s actually something they would like to get back to.

This belief is at the heart of Durex’s ongoing campaign, ‘Let’s not go back to normal’, designed by Havas to highlight how, when it came to sexual wellbeing, normal wasn’t good enough. The initial ad highlighted the sexual stigmas and taboos that have been considered as norms including shaming women who carry condoms or men not wearing them because they don’t like the feel.

The latest film draws attention to the reality that this moment offers a chance to reset sexual norms, posing the question, why would anyone want to return to a normality where people weren’t protecting themselves anyway?

The campaign will be rolled out across Europe, going live in-line with each country’s easing of local lockdown restrictions and follows other lockdown messages that have included, ‘We’ve been protecting people since 1929. Now it’s your turn’, ‘Come together, apart. You don’t have to share a bed to have great sex’ and ‘Staying in doesn’t mean you can’t explore.’

“This is a call to arms, legs, bums and private parts,” says Durex, reminding people that our new normal doesn’t need to hold onto the stigmas of old. Now is an opportunity for people to think differently, to re-evaluate how they see the world and, as Durex explains, to have “better, safer sex.”