Chinese condom brand recruits female 'testers'
Staff Reporter 2012-11-19 16:06
A woman demonstrates correct condom application for a safe sex campaign. (Photo/Lee Chien-kun)
A condom manufacturer in China has attracted the attention of internet users with an online advertisement recruiting female condom testers, our Chinese-language sister paper Want Daily reports.
The advertisement, posted on Weibo, Chinese Twitter-like service, said testers will be paid 3,000 yuan (US$481) for a day's work, and applicants should be good looking female aged between 18 and 25. In under three hours of the ad going live, there were already 22 applicants.
A man quoted by the Want Daily who gave only his surname, Chen, claimed he was the author of the advertisement. Chen said his company had already been taking on female condom testers for a few months, and that he saw quite a few testers "on the job."
The man told a reporter that his company is not currently hiring male testers because they already have enough. He implied, however, that if the reporter introduced a certain number of female applicants to the company he could also become a male tester if he wished.
Chen said that his company also tests condoms with machines, but they by and large test their products with "real users" because they do not have the budget to purchase equipment. He said that the female tester don't have to do much during the test because the male tester is in charge of taking records of the procedure.
Other news reports from Chinese newspapers said the daily rate for a tester was closer to the range of 500 yuan (US$80) to 1,000 yuan (US$160).
When asked about internet users who suspected the company is running a prostitution scheme, Chen said that his company has restricted testers to test only once per day, and that they will not be paid if they did extra work.
However, the company's top officials denied that they were recruiting such testers.
A spokesperson for condom brand Durex said the condoms from his company were all tested with electronic devices, and that such "real tester" thing is something unheard of in their industry.
