Watching the video above I am reminded of the challenge we face in the world of reproductive health—a world I am still getting to know—of trying to make adherence fun.  The piano stairs do a fabulous job of enticing people to walk and work off a few extra calories.  Fun can change behavior for the better.

The challenge for us is that contraception is not so fun.  Even the names of contraception methods—an opportunity for fun—are usually horrible.

Perhaps we can take some cues from toothpaste. Bill Smith, in his recent Social Marketing Quarterly article "The Power of the Product P, or Why Toothpaste Is So Important to Behavior Change," says that what we need to affect change is a product like toothpaste, not ideas. "An idea, like 'health is good,' 'exercise works,' or even 'environmentalism' is the affirmation of a belief, not a social marketing product," Smith wrote. And only a product can be effectively marketed. "Toothpaste," he went on to write, "is a product that helps us achieve our marketing goal of behavior change (bushing teeth)."

We don't try to get people to brush their teeth without toothpaste, but we do ask them to take HIV tests and obtain birth control without compensating them for the stigma they experience. "All we have to do is invent products and services that are as good as toothpaste, update them regularly to keep people interested, price them competitively, put them everywhere, and then tell people how cool they are," Smith challenged. Are we up for the challenge?

Where's the toothpaste?