Condoms flavoured with musk ox, char and caribou a big hit at the Arctic Games

"Often when I'm giving talks up North kids are fascinated by the fact there are cherry- or root-beer-flavoured condoms. We started saying we could have traditional-flavoured condoms."
Although the packages claim the contents are flavoured, the condoms don't really taste like muktuk, or whale skin. It's just a way to draw attention, said Armstrong.
It worked.
The first 2,500 condoms, given away at five locations in Iqaluit along with an information package, disappeared almost immediately after the Games opened last weekend.
By Wednesday, officials had given away more than 15,000 of the condoms, which are brightly packaged with pictures of five different northern animals.
Iqaluit is a city of 6,200 with 900 visiting athletes.
"It's proven to be a remarkable success, not only at providing information to people, but getting really talking about the issues," said Armstrong.
Sexually transmitted diseases are a problem in Nunavut. The territory's rate of chlamydia is about 15 times higher than that in the rest of Canada.
As well, Nunavut's high teen pregnancy rate is an indication that unprotected sex is relatively common.
The condoms aren't being distributed at official venues for the Games, which bring together athletes from throughout the circumpolar world for traditional arctic sports. Games officials were nervous about how they would be received, said Armstrong.
Kids under 11 years of age don't get the condoms, just the wrappers. (HUH???)
But support from businesses and politicians has been strong.
Nunavut Health Minister Ed Picco even dressed up in a big pink condom suit and distributed the condoms on Iqaluit's streets and at a hockey game, Armstrong said.
The reference to traditional foods also makes sense when you think about it, he added.
"The animals that we highlighted were keys to survival in the past. Condoms are survival tools in our present life.
"By combining the past and the present, we were in fact protecting the future."