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Message muted in commercial for Viagra
BY LEWIS LAZARE SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST
20 August 2004
We often find ourselves reaching for the anti-gag medication whenever we see press relations hype that makes a big deal about a new ad campaign based on "deep consumer insights." Or something like that which suggests tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars were thrown down the drain to come up with self-evident truths anyone with a few active brain cells could figure out.
We're told that deep consumer insights have led drug giant Pfizer to the astoundingly obvious conclusion that most men are devilish fiends always on the prowl for sex. Or would like to be, anyway, if everything were functioning at full tilt.
That insight forms the foundation for a new ad campaign from McCann-Erickson/New
York for Pfizer's famous erectile
dysfunction pill Viagra. If, as we've been told, Pfizer hopes
to give Viagra a perkier, more appealing positioning vis a vis aggressive
competitors such as Cialis and Levitra, the 30-second "Shopping"
commercial isn't going to do the job.
"Shopping" introduces us to a married couple who are checking out some sexy lingerie while window shopping. Nothing too frisky about that, but McCann makes the even bigger mistake of letting the voiceover talent do all the work of telling us about the man, who used to be a wild thing and who, once upon a time, couldn't resist a little mischief.
As the image of the guy gets larger on the screen, the announcer tells
us what once was now is again. "He's back," says the voiceover
as the "V" in Viagra
forms behind the guy's head in such a way as to make it appear he
has sprouted blue horns. Horns as in devil.
The commercial's message is badly muted because the guy who supposedly has been transformed is finally nothing but a face the voiceover tries but fails to bring to life.
And whoever thought it would be smart to give the commercial a disconcertingly blue tint to remind us of the color of a Viagra pill ought to be forced to sit in a vat of blue dye for quite a long spell. The coloration makes our devil of a man in "Shopping" look sick. Not playful. And certainly not sexy.
source :-http://www.suntimes.com | 
