• by Les Luchter , May 17, 2023

How many phallic symbols can you count in MangoRx’s latest ad?

A one-minute video consists of four vignettes, also being posted individually, in which men find that normally hard objects have gone limp: a lumberjack’s axe, a pool player’s cue, a golfer’s club and a fencer’s sword. Each promotes the company’s flagship product: a fast-dissolving, mango-flavored orange pill branded as Mango that contains the same active ingredient as Eli Lilly’s Ciali.

The long spot ends with a graphic saying “Some things are better hard,” and then “Mango. Be Fruitful,” while the shorter spots end with a man appearing on screen to intone the tagline.

The creative agency is White Unicorn, which like MangoRx, is based in Dallas.

The company says it’s utilizing such social media platforms as Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, YouTube, Google and Twitter.

The new videos “leverage humor and an open and confident framing of the pursuit of male sexual health and personal improvement to defuse social taboos and normalize ED as a commonly shared functional obstacle to healthy male sexual experiences,” MangoRX said in a press release.

In the same release, company co-founder and CEO Jacob Cohen said that other ED brands are associated with “social discomfort” but “We believe we have opened up a disruptive new lane in this rapidly growing $3.5 billion market. Peak sexual performance is a good thing. Making your sex life better is a good thing. Cultural barriers to talking frankly about that pursuit are a bad thing.”

Visitors to MangoRx’s website need to create an account and undergo “a short telemedicine session. Our medical providers will review your chart and determine if Mango is right for you. If treatment is prescribed, your order will be filled and shipped to you by our contracted pharmacy.”

Mango tablets are sold in a “Cool” six-pack for $75, a “Confident” 12-pack for $150, pra “Cocky” 18-pack for $225.

In MangoRx’s registration for an IPO in January, the company said it plans to "launch new products over time and offer additional subscription-based offerings," competing mainly with "other companies offering men’s wellness products, including Hims & Hers Health, Inc. and Roman."

Its earlier video, Marketing Daily wrote at the time, “opens with an actor reassuring viewers that ‘We’re not going to show you a bunch of penis-shaped produce and talk in thinly veiled metaphors’ -- even as such images appear on the screen.

“The ad also features a woman who seems quite enthused about the product and the possibility of sex -- probably a good reason why a disclaimer at the end notes, ‘Sexual partner not included.’”