There are now three big competitors for the wang dang doodle dollar:
- Viagra vs. Levitra vs. Cialis. It is a Madison Avenue dream. And nightmare.
It is a dream because the three rivals are flush with cash and eager to compete aggressively in a market that is already big and is forecast to grow fast. Ad agencies have been panting like lovesick suitors over the idea of clients willing to spend more than $300 million this year when many other clients are pinching pennies.
The problem is that the products in question treat erectile dysfunction, a condition, like adult incontinence or hemorrhoids, that is hard to discuss without being too vague or too vulgar. So the advertisers have to figure out how to build customer demand and loyalty without offending people and without providing additional fodder for endless gags by late-night talk-show hosts.
Even worse, the products are prescription drugs, so they come freighted with federal restrictions and requirements about advertising content. For instance, if an ad mentions the product name and what it treats, side effects must also be disclosed - in this case eyebrow-lifters like "erections that last for more than four hours."
"My 6-year-old daughter turned to me and said, 'What's a four-hour erection?' " said Kelly Simmons, executive vice president and chief creative officer at Tierney Communications in Philadelphia, who studies sex issues in marketing. "How do you explain it?"
The whole endeavor is mined with awkward moments, beginning with those faced by the 30 million American men who the drug companies estimate have trouble getting and keeping erections. Only 13 percent of those men are being treated, drug makers reckon, so analysts at Lehman Brothers figure that the market for Viagra, Levitra and Cialis should more than triple by 2010, to $6 billion a year.
Article comments
1 - jadester
In all seriousness, i bet i could come up with a good ad. And all they'd have to pay would be a measly £2million (about $4million)
I can draw, i have a sense of humour, and i am a bloke (hence sensitive to what this kind of condition could mean for another bloke's ego =+)
but i'll bet the companies involved never even thought to ask a regular "Joe"
2 - Nick Jones
Note to Ms. Simmons:
Tell your daughter it's a condo built of substandard materials in hurricane country.
3 - RJ Elliott
COMMERCIAL BEGINS
Yao Ming is standing rigid, and is smiling, with his arms stretched up.
Voice-Over: This is you on [Viagra, Levitra, or Cialis]!
Camera slowly pans down to Mini-Me, hunched-over and frowning.
Voice-Over: And this is you without [Viagra, Levitra, or Cialis]...Any questions?
(A female voice now quickly mumbles 14 different side-effects...)
Close-up of Yao Ming: "I love to score!"
COMMERICAL ENDS
Whatcha think? ;-]
4 - Jim Carruthers
So this is where all the tools hang out? Hey, RJ, guess they didn't call you late to dinner.
5 - RJ Elliott
Huh?
6 - Eric Olsen
Or "Jon" as the case may be!
RJ, hilarious and effective.
7 - Natalie Davis
Especially when wangs are involved, make love, not war.
8 - Muhammad Delvalle
Veteran actor William Franklyn, known for voicing the 1960s Schweppes TV adverts, dies aged 81...