Sex sells

Living abroad has made me aware of how puritanical the US can be. While I think people in the US can be a bit prudish, sometimes things can swing just a bit too far the other direction when, for example, one is living in France. I have no problem with the naked breasts displayed in advertisements around town, and the lack of open container laws can be quite convenient at times. But I was recently confronted sexuality being used in a way that left me, well, confused.

When you buy a train ticket in France, it generally comes with a convenient little ticket holder. Normally I wouldn't give these little envelopes a second thought, but on a recent trip this image caught my eye:And I asked myself, "Is that supposed to be what I think it's supposed to be? Because I think it's supposed to be a condom and yet it is on an envelope containing my train tickets."

Hoping to clear up my confusion, I decided to read what was written on the envelope:
For those of you who don't speak French, that translates as "A few grams of plastic, having to do with fidelity, and that you should be interested in using..." My suspicions were confirmed. And then I opened the envelope, at which point it only got better:
Hello Mr. Smiling Condom! How nice to see you with my train tickets!

Now, I don't know what French people normally do on trains, but I have never associated condoms with train travel. Which brings me to the crux of my confusion: how is safe sex supposed to encourage me to take the train and use my frequent travelers' card? Granted, I don't know much about advertising, but I thought the idea was to encourage people to buy your product. Condoms=train tickets just does not compute. Are they telling me that if I don't use my SNCF (National French Train System) card when I take the train I risk catching an STD? Looking at the wording on the envelope, they seem to be saying that just as you use a condom to symbolize your fidelity to a person, so should you use your SNCF card to symbolize your dedication to taking the train. The problem with this is that condoms and fidelity are not two things that are necessarily linked. Quite to the contrary sometimes. So, advertising department at the SNCF, good effort but try a little harder next time.