Pharmaceutical marketer Pfizer is at it again. After moving away from risqué ads for its erectile dysfunction drug Viagra, the company has introduced a new campaign that offers up yet another
vignette involving a man and his partner. This one features a couple watching a baseball game on TV, but the woman heads upstairs and her body language makes it clear she'd welcome her companion's
company. A voiceover observes, "They say in life there's only room for one great passion ... unless you're really clever." The man then grabs a videotape, starts recording the game he was watching,
and then presumably heads upstairs as well. It's a stark departure from a previous, non-branded effort from Pfizer that doesn't even mention Viagra. That campaign encourages men to discuss erectile
dysfunction with their doctor and features sexual health expert and TV and radio host Dr. Drew Pinsky. Viagra and its competitors, including Cialis and Levitra, had stopped running sex-oriented ads
after critics claimed they were marketing the drugs as a risqué lifestyle choice rather than treatment for health problem. Such ads were later replaced by spots with a different approach, like
one for Levitra that showed two men talking about ED being connected to other medical conditions such as diabetes and hypertension. A Pfizer spokesman said that as with all of its ED advertising, the
new spot will air only during age-appropriate programs with at least 90 percent adult viewership and after 8 p.m
advertisement
advertisement
.
Read the whole story at Brandweek »
