Viva Viagra: The Little Blue Pill Has Come a Long Way
Open any newspaper's sports section or watch a baseball game and ads for “erectile dysfunction” are splashed everywhere.
The industry has a come a long way from its humble beginnings just a dozen years ago. Today, there are Institutes and Clinics offering a range of treatments and promises. But are the results any better than the “original?”
"It would be very difficult without Viagra. They’re actually underselling the product. It’s a recreational drug. It eliminates the boundaries between expectation and reality,” Hugh Hefner was quoted as saying regarding his sexual renaissance after seventy.
As the magic potion that put the “boom” back in aging Baby Boomers, Viagra began as do many wonder drugs--an experiment to be something else.
Pfizer thanked its lucky stars and in 1998 Viagra became the first pill approved to treat “the condition.” The problem was “impotence,” a word so painful that men in focus groups could barely utter it. Ad execs searched for euphemisms and came up with “Erectile Dysfunction” or “ED.” Viagra was selected from a name bank because it sounded robust, perhaps a combination of “vigor” and “Niagara” (as in Falls).
What did distressed guys do before the little blue (the color most associated with males) pill? Lots of strong, silent suffering. The few “remedies” were hardly attractive: injections directly into the organ, suppositories placed in the urethra, or scams called “penile pumps” advertised on back pages of sleazy magazines and delivered in plain brown wrapping.
The initial Viagra advertising is low key: a sweet, soft sell featuring middle-aged couples dancing romantically in a kitchen, at railroad stations, on a lakeside dock.
Then Pfizer discovered Bob Dole.
Interviewed on the “Larry King Show,” the startling admission that Viagra helped his sex life after prostate surgery caught national attention. He agreed to do ads—if serious. The ex-Presidential candidate’s spots were dignified, but jokes abounded. A cartoon showed Dole holding a sign while campaigning for spouse Elizabeth: “Vote for My Wife or I’ll Tell You More About Erectile Dysfunction.”
Viagra quickly gained a reputation as an aphrodisiac. Adventuresome young men mixed it with Ecstasy to compensate for the drooping side effects of amphetamines. The threesome combination goes by the name of “sextasy” or “trail mix.”
Regardless of its intended and non-intended use, the little blue pill has come a long way and is a mainstay in today's society.
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