Condoms already come in plenty of forms. You’ve got your ribbed, you glow-in-the-dark, your cola-flavored, your French ticklers and your textured and studded ones. But Bill and Melinda Gates would like to see one that hasn’t been invented yet—and they are willing to fork over more than $1 million for it.

That's why the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is offering up the cash to anyone who can design such a thing in the hopes of stopping the spread of HIV and AIDS, CNN reports.

The contraceptive they’d like to see is a "next generation condom that significantly preserves or enhances pleasure" and promotes "regular use" as part of the foundation's commitment to addressing the global HIV and AIDS crisis.

"Male condoms are cheap, easy to manufacture, easy to distribute, and available globally, including in resource-poor settings, through numerous well-developed distribution channels," the Foundation says, according to CNN. So what’s the problem? Well, people complain that condoms get in the way of intimacy and pleasure, which are generally the goal of most people having intercourse.Continue reading...

There's good news and bad news when it comes to AIDS, and ONE wants to make sure the world's population is aware of both this December 1, the 24th annual World AIDS Day.

The ONE Campaign, the global advocacy organization co-founded by U2's Bono, just released a new report on the global fight against HIV/AIDS. The good news: Scientists now have the tools to "turn the tide" on AIDS, and the world should be heartened that the UN set targets for the "beginning of the end of AIDS" to be met in 2015. The bad news: Unless "sufficient funding, coordination and political will" are brought to bear in the fight against AIDS, it will be 2022 before the "beginning of the end of AIDS" can be reached.

With America mired in a heated national debate over how to fix the debt and the looming fiscal cliff, Bono has been personally lobbying U.S. lawmakers to urge them not to cut U.S. foreign assistance and aid funding. ONE is stoking up the urgency through a variety of actions in conjunction with World AIDS Day 2012.Continue reading...

Durex kicked off its first global initiative for World AIDS Day 2012 on social media. The brand will donate one condom for every person who shares the Twitter hashtag #1share1condom through December 1st, which is World AIDS Day. Facebook users are being encouraged to share the Durex World AIDS Day image or video above. Accoridng to Mumbrella, the condom brand "has symbolically set a target of 2.5 million condom donations ... representative of the 2.5 million people who were newly infected with HIV last year alone."

The Levi's brand fall campaign suggests getting dressed is an empowering action, continuing its message for the fourth year of “Go Forth,” and adding, “This is a pair of Levi’s.” 

The 2012 fall/winter "Go Forth" campaign pitches 18 to 34 year-olds on donning their daily armor to take on the world every day: “This is a pair of Levi’s, buttons and rivets and pockets and cuffs, and the thread that holds it together.”

The language is a call to action: “You follow your heart, follow the leader, you’re the leader. Are you joking, are you breaking, are you shaking? You’re the next living leader of the world. You’re a kid. Holding onto the thread. That holds it together. This is a pair of Levi’s.” Cue Twitter hashtag, “#GoForth.” And Levi's own call to action, tying a thread to its corporate commitment to take a stance on HIV/AIDS.Continue reading...

The fight against AIDS is on track to achieve the first AIDS-free generation by 2015.

Tomorrow celebrates the 23rd World AIDS Day. Since its beginning in 1988, 30 million people have died from the disease and 2.5 million children younger than 15 are living with HIV. But in four years, the world can realize the end of HIV transmission from mothers to babies delivering a key milestone for the beginning of the end of AIDS.

Major brands are continuing their support with limited edition (RED) products to help raise funds for the charity.

Apple is selling a (RED) iPad and iPod Nano; Nike a (RED) collection including trainers, a destroyer jacket and backpack; Gap is selling a t-shirt by French fashion designer Isabel Marant; Lauren Bush's FEED project created a tote bag; and Converse made 500 pairs of (RED) Chuck Taylor All Star shoes with the ‘Ephemeral Pitches, and Notes, Rhythm and Phonetics’ print design from José Parlá.

For the third year in a row, Starbucks will make “your handcrafted beverage an agent of change. They will be turning all handcrafted beverages (RED) on World AIDS Day, December 1st, across the US & Canada, making a five cent donation on every handcrafted beverage sold."Continue reading...

The irony is impossible to ignore.

The good news: the celebrity-led "Digital Death" social media campaign to raise $1 million for the Alicia Keys-backed Keep a Child Alive project that kicked off on World AIDS Day succeeded.

The bad news: the temporarily dead stars who’d pledged to go digital cold-turkey until the funds were raised couldn’t wait for it to happen organically, as originally intended.Continue reading...

Amazon booted WikiLeaks off its servers following political pressure, the whistleblowing site confirmed on Twitter. Bank of America, meanwhile, grapples with rumors it's next on the WikiLeaks hotseat as Julian Assange sets sights on corporate reputations.

Apple's iPhone takes top spot in US smartphone market.

Bloomberg's annual World AIDS Day breakfast disrupted by activist bagel protest.

EU proposes end to branded cigarettes.

USA makes final pitch (incl. Morgan Freeman, Bill Clinton) to host 2022 FIFA World Cup.

Google Doodles expand to mobile; clamps down on business trolling.

Groupon expands in Asia with three acquisitions ahead of Google deal.Continue reading...

Stars and brands are aligning to promote World AIDS Day. In addition to Lady Gaga and other celebrities' "digital death" social media log-off (above) spearheaded by Alicia Keys, Annie Lennox was named London's "HIV Ambassador" and released a PSA for World AIDS Day.  

Bono kicked off the (RED) campaign to virtually and physically "turn the world red" today (the message: an HIV-free generation of babies by 2015) with a kick-off event in Sydney, and a reminder that brands including Nike, Starbucks, Gap, American Express and Armani create and sell products exclusively for (RED) year-round.Continue reading...