Shout out to John Mack and his Pharma Marketing blog for finding and writing about this ad he saw in a magazine.
Mack writes:
"I've circled two areas of this ad's imagery, which takes up more than 50% of the ad space, to illustrate what I mean. The circled areas show outdoor Viagra ads WITHIN the print ad!If such outdoor ads existed in the "real" world, they would violate FDA regulations regarding fair balance because they do not mention any side effects or risks, just the benefits.
The tag line of the ad, "Guys are getting the message," obviously refers to these messages that dominate the world within the ad to which the "guy" in the ad is exposed.
If Viagra were an over-the-counter (OTC) medication, outdoor ads like the billboard and taxi ads shown in this print ad would be perfectly legal. Which leads me to believe that Pfizer is preparing the Viagra brand for OTC status. As you may know, Viagra will lose its patent protection as early as June, 2011, so it's not too early for Pfizer to subtly plant these OTC ad images in our mind."
Leave a comment
My policy on commentsI'm adopting the policy of a blog I admire: “Comments are great; obnoxious comments get deleted. Deal." I also won’t post profanity, product pitches, or anything from anyone who doesn’t list what appears to be an actual e-mail address.