The advert promotes DKT's "XXX" strawberry, chocolate and banana flavoured condoms with the catchline "What is your flavor of the night?."

A truck driver blows up a condom during an AIDS awareness campaign event called a 'condom party,' organized by a non-government organisation (NGO) in Guragon, in the northern Indian state of Haryana June 9, 2006. Indian authorities want to stop the daytime airing of a television advertisement promoting flavoured condoms saying it is obscene and in bad taste, a newspaper reported Friday. [Reuters]

But the Advertising Standards Council of India and the Censor Board have asked the government to bar the ad from being broadcast during the day, especially during the popular Champions Trophy international cricket tournament.

"This campaign is obscene," Sharmila Tagore, chairwoman of the Censor Board was quoted as saying in the Times of India. "Maybe DKT is targeting raunchy teenagers. But the ads are definitely not meant for children."

Tagore, who is also an anti- AIDS activist, said she did not want to ban the advert totally, but recommended it be aired after 11 p.m. or in cinemas with an "A certification" instead of during the day when children were watching television.

An A certification on a film or advert indicates that it is meant for adult viewing only.

A senior DKT official told the newspaper the flavored condoms were not meant to promote oral sex, but to encourage couples who do not like the smell of latex.

Conservative attitudes to sex and contraception and a lack of awareness is common, especially in rural India.

Experts say this has not only left children and women vulnerable to abuse but has also exacerbated the spread of HIV/AIDS in the country, which now has the highest number of cases in the world.

According to the United Nations, 5.7 million Indians are living with the virus. But activists say the true figure may be far higher as social stigma forces many of those infected to keep their status a secret.