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Cabbages & Condoms: Business Innovation for Social Change
If your name's going to become synonymous with condoms, you want it to be for a good reason. For Mechai Viravaidya, the founder of Cabbages and Condoms restaurants in Thailand, it is. In a country where the sex industry is a thriving but devastating enterprise leading to unwanted pregnancies and the propagation of STDs, and population growth had exploded to epidemic proportions, Mechai decided to make condoms as common as one of the most popular staple dishes in villages everywhere: cabbages.
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Primary Sources
Cabbages and Condoms -written by Chris Johnston
In the mid '60s, while overseeing public projects for a development planning organization - roads, dams, schools, health clinics - the young man from a privileged Thai family got his first exposure to village life. "I saw there were a lot of children everywhere," recalls the former Minister of Health and one of Thailand's leading philanthropists. "So we did a study and found that we could not keep up with the demand of ever-increasing numbers of children." Realizing the country needed to increase the speed of development efforts while decreasing the birth rate, he adds, led to a new initiative to implement public education programs to promote family planning and the distribution of contraceptives in every village.
But Mechai had a personal motivation, as well. "I didn't want to waste my life, my education on just getting all the money I can, eating caviar and drinking red wine just to pass it out the next day without making any changes in my surroundings," he says. "So, I decided that helping people was something I wanted to do."
In 1974, he founded the Population and Community Development Association (PDA), one of Thailand's most established and diverse NGOs. One year later, he started Cabbages and Condoms to disseminate the message, along with several other businesses to generate income that would fund development and provide support of social welfare activities of the PDA. Mechai says he quickly realized private donors would not give money forever, so in the long run the agency had to fund itself. "Most of the money is in the pockets of consumers," he explains. "So you have to go to their pockets, get the profits and use it for socially responsible causes."
Now, a combination of exceptionally enticing Thai dishes and a one-of-a-kind ambiance that features condom-patterned carpeting and bouquets of condom-topped artificial flowers draws more than 500 inquisitive foreign visitors to Cabbages and Condoms various locations each week. Relying on "sanuk," the Thai sensibility of fun, Mechai playfully promotes prophylactics in a palatable manner. Diners can enjoy tucking into the famous Spicy Condom Salad - fried Shanghai noodles spiced with herbs - or numerous other local and regional delicacies, then select from a plate of condoms in place of after dinner mints. Of course, men who patronize the vasectomy clinic next-door may imbibe free drinks in the Vasectomy Bar.
On the lighter side, each restaurant also operates a handicraft shop, where customers can peruse a selection of snazzy souvenirs, ranging from handmade silk scarves, jewelry, pottery, key chains and cards with humorous slogans emphasizing safe sex, as well as a cornucopia of condoms and condom-related memorabilia. They can also take home a T-shirt emblazoned with the chain's motto: "Our food is guaranteed not to cause pregnancy." A portion of the proceeds goes to the village artisans who create many of the goods.
Ultimately, Mechai's strategy is simple: Rather than resort to heavy-handed tactics, he employs humor to engender interest in the message of safe sex and encourage people to consider condoms a healthy habit. By combining the same colorful showmanship that corporations leverage to sell everything from automobiles to shoes with his innate appreciation of the Thai personality, Mechai has been able to reach more people in his campaign to desensitize the condom and coax it out of the closet. Tourists aside, the predominantly uneducated people in Thailand's rural areas find the gimmicks and publicity pranks he uses to push the message of "no glove, no love" funny and easy to understand.
"I wanted to take the seriousness and embarrassment out of birth control and make it a clean, fun thing," Mechai has said. "I wanted people to accept contraceptives in the same way they do soap and toothpaste. Sometimes I shocked people; sometimes I made them laugh. The important thing was to make them think and react."
Through his tireless efforts, Mechai has been instrumental in improving his country's health and population situation. Cabbages and Condoms, which operates free vasectomy clinics next to its restaurants, is responsible for 30 percent of the country's vasectomies and 80 percent of Bangkok's vasectomies. In just 12 years, PDA's programs contributed to lowering the number of children per family from seven to two. Further, Thailand's birth rate has dropped below 1 percent a year.
Currently, there are seven Cabbages and Condoms restaurants in different parts of the country. The PDA has also registered 16 local companies involved in resorts, agricultural products, real estate, construction, retail and handicraft shops, a museum, eco-tourism, research and rural supply systems. The profits of these companies comprise about 70 percent of the organization's budget.
Additionally, in response to the immense success of their humanitarian-focused business model, the PDA is now offering international training courses to help other socially responsive organizations maintain sustainability through establishing their own profitable businesses.
Moreover, Mechai is presently in the process of expanding the Cabbages and Condoms chain beyond Thailand's borders, with plans to open the first restaurant in Bucharest, Romania. To reach a younger audience, the PDA will also debut a new chain in Thailand called Coffee and Condoms. The first shop is slated to open next-door to the Cabbages and Condoms restaurant in Bangkok in December 2004. Mechai is also working on a partnership with Planned Parenthood to open restaurants in the United States.
Asked if he's ever concerned about encountering adversaries who oppose birth control or the free distribution of contraceptives, especially as he launches Cabbages and Condoms in the U.S., Mechai first points out that the number of people who are infected and destined to die of AIDS is double the number of soldiers who died during the Second World War, making AIDS a major killer worldwide. "Everything one does someone will find controversial, but that doesn't worry us," he says. "We're just being open and honest, and we're trying to spread knowledge and save lives."
After 35 years of distinguished public service, philanthropy and successful efforts to promote birth control, safe sex and AIDS awareness throughout Thailand, what drives Mechai to take on the rest of the world now?
"If people who have opportunities in life in terms of education and reasonable comfort in terms of finance don't help the poor, who is going to?" he concludes. "Besides, it's fun, and I enjoy doing it."
Further Reading
Cabbages and Condoms Restaurant -by Bauback Yeganeh
Acknowledgements
On-camera or recorded audio subjects:
Senator Mechai Viravaidya
Interviewer: Chris Johnston
Story Lead and Researcher: Bauback Yeganeh
Writer: Chris Johnston
Video Production: Rachel Wilkins, Bauback Yeganeh, Nadezhda Zhexembayeva
Audio Production: Bauback Yeganeh and Rachel Wilkins
Music Written and Performed by: Bauback Yeganeh
Photography by: Jackie Dieffenbacher and Bauback Yeganeh
This program was produced by World Benefit Productions and The Center for Business as an Agent of World Benefit at Case Western Reserve University, which is solely responsible for its content.
© 2004 World Benefit Productions, All Rights Reserved
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