Last year, Pfizer spent $176 million advertising Viagra, a drug that accounted for nearly $1.2 billion in sales in 2013.

Viagra has been a top selling drug for pharmaceutical company Pfizer.

Ads for prescription drugs that treat erectile dysfunction have featured amorous couples in separate bathtubs overlooking the mountains, football coaches, and nationally known presidential candidates. But it’s not as if medications for erectile dysfunction need a lot of help getting off pharmacy shelves and into customers’ shopping bags. When Viagra was first introduced to the market, urologists had to cope with a sudden influx of demand, and the drugs have been in high demand ever since, with most gaining “blockbuster†status, bringing in over a billion dollars per year.

But market changes for erectile dysfunction drugs have caused the big pharmaceutical companies behind them to continue their marketing efforts in recent years. Viagra went off-patent in many EU countries and Canada in 2013, cutting Pfizer’s profits. While Viagra won’t go completely off-patent in the US until 2020, Pfizer has already cut a deal with generics manufacturer Teva Pharmaceuticals to introduce its product in the US in late 2017. It appears the company is eager to lock down loyalty to the Viagra brand in the US while it still has patent protection. Some of the company’s latest ads feature a different take: women pitching Viagra.

Women Speaking to Men About Erectile Dysfunction

One of Pfizer’s latest ads for Viagra has a male voiceover to cover side effects and warnings, but otherwise doesn’t include men. Rather, the one-minute ad features an attractive, pleasantly-accented woman addressing men directly: “So guys, it’s just you and your honey. The setting is perfect. But then erectile dysfunction happens again. You know what? Plenty of guys have this issue — not just getting an erection, but keeping it. Well Viagra helps guys with ED get and keep an erection.â€

Sexual researcher Dr. Irwin Goldstein of the San Diego Sexual Medicine Center tells The Desert Sun that having women in ads for erectile dysfunction medications makes sense. After all, women can be upset by erectile dysfunction too. Moreover, says Goldstein, men don’t like going to doctors, and when they do, they find it difficult to broach the subject of erectile dysfunction. The new ad emphasizes that women are understanding when it comes to erection problems and want their men to not be afraid to seek help.

Is the Ad Subtly Addressing Women as Well?

Seeing an ad featuring Mike Ditka telling men to take Levitra is unlikely to make women feel included in the cultural conversation about erectile dysfunction. So it’s possible that Pfizer’s new ad could be subtly trying to reassure women and subtly prompt them to bring up the subject with their partners, the logic being, “If this beautiful woman understands the problem is physiologic and can speak in caring terms about it, maybe I could too.â€

In earlier ads for prescription medications for erectile dysfunction, women were usually background characters if they appeared at all. But this ad puts a woman right in the center of the conversation, where she assures viewers that women “get it†and aren’t judging men for having ED.

More Straightforward Language in This Advertisement

The new ad also depicts a more direct approach to erectile dysfunction and Viagra, after years of more subtle campaigns. For example, previous Viagra ads, designed by agency McGarryBowen, featured the captain of a fishing boat and was more oblique about acknowledging erectile dysfunction. The latest ad represents a new direction, and was created by ad agency BBDO, which took over Pfizer’s Viagra ad account last year.

Pfizer’s latest ad for Viagra tells it from a woman’s point of view.

The idea with the latest ad is to offer the partner’s perspective on the issue with both candor and compassion carefully balanced to motivate men to seek help (and Viagra) if they are having problems getting or maintaining an erection. And speaking of “erection,†this ad also dispenses with the more euphemistic “ED†that has been a staple of similar ads for a long time, addressing erections by name.

Viagra Isn’t the First to Have Women Address Erectile Dysfunction

But while the new ad for Viagra is a change in direction for Pfizer, it isn’t the first to have a woman talk about erectile dysfunction. Back in 2004, an ad for Levitra featuring a woman and her partner drew criticism for being too racy. In this ad, the woman implies that the effectiveness of Levitra makes him want to “do this more often,†and depicts his satisfaction at the results: “For him Levitra works. Just look at that smile,†she says.

In the years following that particular Levitra ad, GlaxoSmithKline, maker of Levitra, backtracked considerably, and in 2011, the company suspended television ads for Levitra, telling The Wall Street Journal it had “stepped up its commitment to operate with integrity.†The suspension also followed government investigations into GlaxoSmithKline’s marketing practices.

Conclusion

People are used to seeing ads for Viagra and other medications for erectile dysfunction. At the same time, the big pharmaceutical companies behind those products are either already fighting competition from generic competitors or are gearing up to do so. Viagra, which is more of a household name for treatment of erectile dysfunction than its competitors, has recently changed direction with its video advertising, emphasizing the effects that erection problems can have on relationships and offering reassurance from a female spokesperson.

Erectile dysfunction does affect more than just the man who experiences it, but fortunately, the conversation around the issue has become more informed and candid. What used to be routinely written off as a psychological problem is now recognized as often a vascular problem that can be effectively treated with medication that addresses the vascular causes of erectile dysfunction. And Pfizer’s latest ad for Viagra reassures both men and women that bringing up the subject of erectile dysfunction with a physician is the first step toward a healthier sex life.

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