In the annals of ad history, that first Viagra commercial is right up there with the Energizer Bunny. “That ad was all about introducing ED (erectile dysfunction) to the public, and selling ED,” says Meika Loe, the author of The Rise of Viagra: How the Little Blue Pill Changed Sex in America.
It didn’t take the marketing geniuses at Pfizer Inc., which makes Viagra, long to get smart. They changed the pill’s raison d’etre from impotence to a condition they popularized—ED. Forever banish that horrible word, impotence. The ad was “was effective marketing—it taught the public to think that sexual problems are no longer severe, shameful, and rare—but they are more common,” says Loe.
Above all, Pfizer sought to keep it simple: ED. Mention erectile dysfunction when and only when the FDA required it. The idea was to make two letters, ED, as popular as OK. Got it?
But there was more to firing up Viagra. Bob Dole had to go. How often does a 75-year-old guy want to have sex, anyway? More importantly (at least from the drug companies’ perspective): How many years did Bob Dole have left to buy drugs? Not to be left out of the equation: The image of Bob and Elizabeth Dole having sex. Talk about turn-offs, even if you’re a Republican.
Bob Dole was just too old to be the poster boy for a drug that could turn a limp penis into one you could spin plates with. If Pfizer was going to recoup the millions it had invested in its diamond-shaped blue pill, it would have to attract a much younger and more diverse customer, says Loe, who teaches medical sociology at Colgate University. The younger the buyer, the more sex he’s probably getting (or at least hoping he’s getting), and the more years he’d have to buy the pills. Provided that the drug works and works well, Pfizer could have on its corporate hands satisfied customers who’d be popping Viagra for the rest of their lives. Everyone wins: horny guys getting more than they ever expected and contented stockholders clucking atop growing nest eggs.
Besides the pill popper’s age, the ads changed other pre-conceived notions of who should be taking these penis risers. Loe notes that the ads subtly expanded the pharmaceutical’s market base. All kinds of ethnic men began touting Viagra, from letter carriers, to athletes, to a man in a wheelchair, so the message was that not just aging, wealthy white men have ED. The strategy went further, leaving ED in the dust and shifting from a medical reason for taking Viagra to simply taking it to improve your lifestyle, your masculinity, your sex life, and therefore your relationships.
The idea transformation was thus complete: An erection in a bottle for everyone—including the women we love.
Witness today’s ads and commercials. The guys pimping ED drugs look in their mid-thirties, busily throwing footballs (swish!) through tire swings. And the woman, they’re a long way, baby, from Elizabeth Dole. These women have sly, come-hither smiles that say, “C’mon, sweetheart, I’m all yours, whenever you want (it).” They might be talking about “a quality experience when the time is right,” but the subtext is more like, “My man and I are animals in the sack!”
???
Levitra (made by GlaxoSmithKline and Bayer) and Cialis (from Eli Lilly & Co. and Icos Corp.) were introduced in late 2003, but both are coming on strong. Hard stats are difficult to come by, since there are so many free samples out there, and many men fill a prescription or two, then stop using the drugs or use them irregularly (50 percent of Viagra prescriptions are not refilled); black-market, Internet, and counterfeit sales of ED drugs are, by nature, unregulated. Thus far, though, Viagra is still the market leader with a little less than 50 percent of the worldwide market, followed by Cialis (40 percent) and Levitra (10 percent).
The drugs are the latest sex toys for men in their middle years, increasingly popular among men (and even some women) ages 18 to 45. That’s why 39-year-old homerun king Rafael Palmeiro and racecar driver Mark “Start your engines” Martin were spokesmen for two of the drugs. That’s why Viagra, Levitra, and Cialis ads are everywhere there are men—from NFL, NBA, NHL, and Major League Baseball games to PGA tournaments, the America’s Cup in sailing, and NASCAR races.
The surging popularity of ED drugs has changed how men and women look at aging, sexuality, masculinity, femininity, marriage, dating, and relationships. They also have had a profound effect in how we talk (or don’t talk) to each other.
Take the fidgety guy not used to dating, perhaps coming off a divorce, who worries that he won’t be able to get an erection. Or the guy who the moment his girlfriend suggests he wear a condom, his erection goes poof. Many men who pop these penis boosters don’t want to cop to any pharmaceutical intervention. Why ruin the mystique? Talk about impressing your new girlfriend with news that it was a pill—not she—that transformed your shrimpy penis into a pulsating pole. Then there’s the issue of what happens when a guy decides to go cold turkey after several amazing lovemaking sessions. Imagine this scenario:
She (suspiciously): “Hey, what happened to you last night?
He (sputtering): “Whaddayamean?”
She (getting up to leave): “All my girlfriends were waiting in line to take a whirl with you. But now I realize you’re just like my husband!”
Which brings up the real issue of psychological dependence. “If a guy takes one of these pills and after sex the woman says, ‘Wow, that was great!’ what’s the guy going to do the next time?” asks Abraham Morgentaler, a Boston urologist and author of The Viagra Myth: The Surprising Impact on Love and Relationships. “Those four words might be the most dangerous four words a man can ever hear.”
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The conundrum here is that while many middle-aged men might not need the drugs, the lovemaking can be better with them, says Morgentaler and Ira Sharlip, a spokesman for the American Urological Association. The reason? Because men are freed from worry that their erections might fail, they slow down, become more confident, spend more time on their partners’ needs, all the while prolonging sex. So, the drugs finally (the one woman who’s reading this article is now saying) allow men to spend more time on foreplay, and in turn, can transform an ordinary lover into a Caring Sensitive Man who’s also a Major Stud. With the issue of keeping it up out of the way, the pills can allow a man to be more natural (some irony, huh?) in terms of communicating, pleasuring his partner, and radiating a greater sense of ease during sex.
“When sex is restored in a relationship, it’s a marvelous thing,” says Morgentaler, a clinical associate professor of urology at Harvard Medical School. “These drugs, under the best of circumstances, can restore a whole array of relationship issues that stem from the man feeling incomplete because of the possibility of ED.”
The three drugs are slightly different, even though they ultimately aim to do the same thing. They do not replace desire, so if you pop a pill, don’t worry about getting an erection looking at sheep, fine-leather boots, or your mother-in-law (unless you have sexual desire for any of them). Viagra can take an hour to kick in, and for some men, it will not work on a full stomach (ditch the romantic candlelight dinner). In exceedingly rare cases, men who take Viagra have reported that for a while they see the world with a bluish tint. (Great. My fantasy: making love to a blue-eyed woman with blue nipples.) Each of the drugs can cause flushing since the pills are vasodilators, which means they open up your arteries and send blood coursing through them. If you take nitrates (for instance, nitroglycerin) for angina, then you should not mix them with any of the penis-hardening agents.
Levitra claims to work faster than Viagra, in as little as 15 minutes, but like the two others drugs, can cause headaches (“Sorry dear, I have a headache and an erection”). Viagra and Levitra say their effects last four hours, but on occasion, men report results for up to 12 hours. Cialis doesn’t start working for an hour, but once it kicks in, the manufacturer says it’ll keep working for 36 hours, so even after you ejaculate, many men stay hard for more rounds.
The correct dosage is up for grabs. Most urologists suggest first experimenting with the smallest first. Since all doses, from the smallest to the largest, of the drugs cost about the same, many cost-conscious users get the highest dose and then crack the pills (and for that reason, the manufacturers make all three drugs very difficult to split) and save the other halves for another spin. You don’t have to go to a urologist for samples; drug reps leave millions of samples with internists, general practitioners, probably even your wife or girlfriend’s OB-GYN.
Last year, 40 percent of the ED pills men took were free samples, researchers estimate. The drug makers’ latest beef is that men are asking their physicians for samples, and when the sample packs are used up, the men don’t fill the prescriptions (that’s the drug companies’ problem, not ours). Some insurance providers pick up the drugs’ tab, some don’t. Out of pocket, the drugs average about $12 per pill from the corner pharmacy (depending on quantity), and less over the Internet (but beware of cyberspace rip-offs).
Dawn, where do you get the impression that anyone said it was greedy or unfair for men to want to have great sex into old age? The truth is our bodies change as we get older. Often, in men and women, the simple physical feeling of desire is lessened with age. There seems to be a struggle beween the actual physical desire and the wanting of the actual physical desire. When I’m hungry I eat. When I am tired. I sleep. But when it comes to sex, it seems that we have so many products peddled to us to make… Read more »
I am utterly mystified by the attitude that it’s greedy or unfair for men to want to have great sex well into old age (and even disability, as you mention with drugs that inhibit erections).
“In exceedingly rare cases, men who take Viagra have reported that for a while they see the world with a bluish tint. (Great. My fantasy: making love to a blue-eyed woman with blue nipples.)” – author Avatar fans rejoice! 🙂 Henry, I took something different from the article then you did. I didn’t get the impression that the author was saying that ED drugs should never be used. I think he was just pointing out just how often they are unreasonably peddled. And how many men relay on ED drugs when they might not really even need it because they… Read more »
Bloom’s piece has to be the stupidest thing I’ve read in months. It’s an example of what we might call the “quick, fake expose involving no research,” and is probably a reason that Schools of Journalism shouldn’t be part of higher education. I’m a 65 year old university professor in great physical shape. I take a good amount of blood pressure medication, and you better believe I use Viagra. I’d rather take Cialis, but it’s not on my insurance’s formulary. I can get hard without it (sometimes) but it’s good insurance that things will go well. My wife is 61… Read more »
I was also bothered by the ablist implication that getting sick should mean goodbye erections, and you should like it too. Unhealthy people can’t just accept what their bodies can naturally do.
No question that intimacy is the most important of sex and a relationship. But when you don’t have intimacy, the best thing to do is love the one you’re with, as the song goes. By the way, Viagra gives me and my older brother chest pains, so those drugs aren’t for everyone. I still have a bottle I won’t use.
“Your penis is your penis, usually till death do you part. Learn to accept it, care for it, pay attention to it.” Great line from a great story. I find this whole ED thing more than mildly disturbing, like the stories of guys doing X and ED drugs together and going on some never ended sexual romp. Seems to me that sex is actually about a physical connection between two people that is certainly erotic but also emotional. Getting off, or even getting hard, is merely a side show for something more important. I am pretty sick of being bombarded… Read more »
So, you’re saying that having an erection is irrelevant to your sex life? That doesn’t really make sense to me.
Great article. Lots to keep in mind as I get older. I’m in my mid thirties and am happy to hear that these drugs won’t do anything for me. One less thing to think about. I don’t want to be that 60-year-old who wants to have sex out of the blue either. I think I’ll ask first.