Viagra Airing TV Ads Targeted At Women For The First Time

“Hey, ladies, talk about ED before you guys go on vacation.”

While Viagra is a medication taken for men, they’re not the only ones who could benefit from its use. The makers of the erectile dysfunction treatment have figured out that women are a valuable marketing asset, what with being half of a man-woman horizontal tango, and as such, have started aiming ads at the female of the species for the first time ever.

The first Viagra TV commercial aimed at women starts airing today, showing a middle-aged woman lounging around somewhere tropical and warm.

“So guys, it’s just you and your honey. The setting is perfect. But then erectile dysfunction happens again,” she says. “Plenty of guys have this issue — not just getting an erection, but keeping it.”

She goes on with the usual spiel, telling men to talk to their doctors about the drug and how it could work.

Pfizer is likely making a push for Viagra, its sixth-place breadwinner, as the medication’s patent has already expired in Europe and has only three years left in the states before facing competition from generic meds.

As such, bringing women into the equation could be a smart move, explains the director of the the San Diego Sexual Medicine center, Dr. Irwin Goldstein, telling the Associated Press that women can be more upset by ED than the man.

And Pfizer admits it’s not going to dance around the topic anymore, with the marketing chief telling the AP they’re going for the direct approach, instead of building ads around “very subtle innuendo.”

Instead of saying “ED,” for example, the actress in the ad says “erection,” which could prompt women to bring up the topic with their significant other.

Viagra ads target women for 1st time [Associated Press]

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist