Four Seasons Naked Condoms has launched a new AI campaign in collaboration with Emotive and AiCandy Australia, using AI filmmaking and monster-movie storytelling to take on rising STI rates among Gen Z.
Titled The Rise of the STIs, the campaign transforms the risks of unsafe sex into grotesque cinematic monsters invading the real world.
A doomsday world of STI monsters
Directed by AiCandy’s filmmaking duo Too Short For Modelling, the hero film opens on an intimate, everyday moment between two young adults.
“Do you wanna put a condom on?”
A simple “what’s the worst that could happen?” decision to decline a condom quickly escalates into cinematic chaos, as abstract risks become literal monsters.
The film features a giant baby kaiju crashing through the city, followed by grotesque personifications of gonorrhoea, chlamydia and syphilis tearing through streets and buildings.
Why the campaign lands now
The campaign arrives as STI rates continue to climb in Australia.
Data from the Kirby Institute cited in the release shows more than 101,000 chlamydia cases in Australia in 2024, with around half among 20 to 29-year-olds, alongside rising gonorrhoea infections.
Research from La Trobe University cited in the release also shows condom use is falling, with more than half of young Australians not using one the last time they had sex.
Dr Lucy Herron, GP at Coogee Beach Doctors in Sydney, said STIs are a regular issue in general practice.
“In general practice, we see young patients presenting with sexually transmitted infections every single day,” Herron said.
“Chlamydia is very common and often has no symptoms, but can lead to serious complications, including infertility, if not detected early.”
To unpack the AI madness, Mediaweek sat down with the brains behind the idea and the technology: Simon Joyce, Founder and CEO of Emotive; Gavin McLeod, CCO of Emotive; and AiCandy founders Kent Boswell and Marcus Tesoriero.
Why humour, not shame, was the brief
Speaking about the strategy behind the campaign, Joyce told Mediaweek the challenge was to make sexual health messaging connect with Gen Z without sounding like a public service announcement.
“We’ve got Gen Zs who have more access to sexual health content than ever before, but it isn’t connecting.
“The driving insight behind this idea was: don’t show up like a public service announcement. Don’t shame them.”
Joyce said the best way to bring the idea to life was through a combination of absurdity and humour.
The idea evolved into The Rise of the STIs, where sexually transmitted infections became cinematic giants.
Simon Joyce: “It was designed to cut through, not to put the fear of God into you, but to cut through.”
“This whole story started coming together around the potential risks of not practising safe sex.”
When the idea arrived, Joyce said the team realised “the only way to truly unlock this idea is AI.”
“This is a very deliberate use of AI. AI enabled an entire world that would not have been possible otherwise, unless we had millions and millions of dollars.”
‘I f**king hate AI’: tackling AI fatigue
McLeod added that the team was conscious of AI fatigue and the backlash that often follows AI-led creative work.
“We actually did a deep dive on all the AI content that has been created, which really hit momentum in social and awareness, and bucketed the responses.
“There are a bunch of common buckets. There are the AI haters, and you can go through the comment sections and see the same language come up.”
McLeod said one of the most common responses is: “I f**king hate AI.”
Rather than ignore that reaction, McLeod said the campaign is built to respond to it in real time.
Gavin Mcloed: “We’ve looked at that, knowing this campaign is going to have advocates and people who react against AI.”
That response strategy includes social content designed to incorporate criticism into the campaign’s momentum.
The campaign is also designed to evolve in the public eye. As it rolls out, characters from the campaign will respond directly to audience comments, turning social reactions into part of the storytelling.
“For example, if someone posts, ‘I f**king hate AI,’ gonorrhoea is going to come back with a little viral clip of it doing a dance, celebrating the fact that it has gone viral with 100,000 cases over the last five years.”
“So we’re making this not just a piece of film. It’s something that is going to live and breathe beyond just watching it,” McLeod concluded.
AiCandy on imagination, craft and AI
Emotive worked closely with AiCandy Australia to create the campaign’s cinematic world, using emerging AI filmmaking techniques to create scale that the release says would have been almost impossible through traditional production methods.
AiCandy founders Marcus Tesoriero and Kent Boswell
Boswell and Tesoriero told Mediaweek the campaign was driven by imagination, not tools or prompts.
“A lot of people lean into the technology side of what made this possible, what tools, what prompts. But you know what? It’s actually your imagination,” Tesoriero said.
“Kent and I made a firm stake in the ground when we first started: nothing leaves our door without elevated craft and creativity.”
Boswell said the hardest part is more than just pressing a button. It is about thinking clearly about what you want to do.
Founders said the work should be judged by whether it makes audiences feel something, not simply whether it was made with AI.
The pair said AiCandy sees itself as a story company first, not just an AI company.
“What we like to do is come from a craft and creativity lens to help build amazing scripts into extraordinary, amazing scripts, and unlock the possibilities of AI that wouldn’t have been possible a year or two ago.”
The campaign launches on Snapchat, featuring short-form content and social extensions created by Emotive Productions’ specialist AI team.
CREDITS
Client: Four Seasons Naked Condoms
Creative Agency: Emotive
AI Film Production: AiCandy Australia
Social AI Production: Emotive Productions
PR: Emotive
Client: Four Seasons Naked Condoms
Managing Director: Michael Porter
Creative Agency, Social AI Production & PR: Emotive
CEO & Founder: Simon Joyce
Executive Strategy Partner: Sebastian Revell
CCO: Gavin McLeod
Creative: Gary Eck
Head of PR & Influencer: Rhania Farah
Head of Social & Content: Clément Simon
Business Director/s: Zoe Hartas, Tian Skene
General Manager, Emotive Productions: Hayley-Ritz Pelling
Creative Direction and AI Artists: Paul Sharp, Ed Macaulay
Head of Design: Daniel Mortensen
Editor: Sam Gadsden
Producer: Michael Hollis
Post Producer: Rebecca Love-Williams
Sound Design: Electric Sheep Music
AI Film Production: AiCandy Australia
Head of Production: Kent Boswell
Head of Creative: Marcus Tesoriero
AI Directors: Too Short For Modelling
Social Media Buying
All Social: Ruud Spierings
Top image: AI STI kaiju/Monsters