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Viagra Ads Make Point Without Making Sense

A new campaign for Viagra airing in Canada features middle-aged men and women speaking in a made-up language except for one word: Viagra.

"Viagra spanglecheff?" says a man to a friend at a bowling alley in one execution. "Spanglecheff?" his friend asks. "Minky Viagra noni noni boo-boo plats!" the first man replies, with a grin that suggests he is not talking about the drug's side effects. The ads end with the slogan, "The International Language of Viagra."

Maxine Thomas, an executive at Taxi, the agency in Toronto that produced the campaign, said the ads take advantage of Viagra's name recognition. Dr. Sidney Wolfe, director of Public Citizen's Health Research Group, said the new ads are merely a reminder that drug companies will say anything--even if it is incomprehensible--to increase sales. The ads come as Viagra is losing market share to other impotence drugs.

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