Auntie Beeb's World Service Trust has a new ringtone aimed at Indian men who refuse to wear condoms because they believe they'd make their mates mock them.

An advert will hopefully spark interest in the practical little helpers.

Funded in part by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the ringtone will be launched with an advert that suggests using condoms isn't a taboo, but a far more a clear display of social responsibility which garners support from friends, foes and family. Using the ringtone is supposed to be fun and is designed to make the user feel comfortable with condoms, instead of inhibited when he hears the c-word, which unfortunately is a taboo in India.

UNAIDS said 5.6 million people in India were infected with the potentially lethal HIV virus, however the Indian National AIDS control Organisation (NACO) disputed the UN's estimate. Both bodies conjured up a new estimate which was somewhere between 2 and 3.6 million people. NGOs have remarked the number of AIDS victims is higher.

Apart from keeping people safe from infection, condoms are also a very cost-efficient way for making sure one won't wind up with a pregnant wife or girlfriend.

''Ringtones have become such personal statements that a specially created condom ringtone seemed just the right vehicle to define its user as a sensible person. We have always had a strong interactive, response-oriented element in this ongoing campaign. This downloadable ringtone provides yet another opportunity for our target audience to translate the message into an action point,' explains Radharani Mitra, creative director of the BBC World Service Trust.

The ringtone advert can be viewed here, whilst UNAIDS data for India can be found here. X