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Year
2007 |
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Pfizer takes fire from AIDS group over Viagra
January 04, 2006
Pfizer Inc. is
under fire from the country’s largest AIDS advocacy group,
which claims that a recent print advertisement for Viagra promoted
the erectile dysfunction medication
for recreational use and encouraged unsafe sex.
Michael Weinstein, president of the Los Angeles-based AIDS Healthcare
Foundation said he was outraged that Pfizer would “employ
an advertising strategy that encourages the use of Viagra as a ‘party
drug.
The company ran a full-page ad in The Wall Street Journal that
features the same middle-aged man Pfizer has used in most Viagra
ads. Two pieces of the text read, “What are you doing on New
Year’s Eve?” and “Fact: Viagra can help guys with
all degrees of erectile dysfunction -- from mild to severe.”
The ad has been part of a campaign by Pfizer and Interpublic Group
of Cos.’ McCann Erickson, in which it has made timely tweaks
to its print messages and ad copy recently. For instance a Viagra
ad run around Thanksgiving said “What are you giving thanks
for?”
Pfizer did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The
New Year’s ad included a reminder statement at the bottom
in which the company urged Viagra users to “remember to protect
yourself and your partner from sexually transmitted diseases.”
AIDS Healthcare Foundation has criticized ads before. In March
of 2005, in a letter to drug makers that cited what it called “a
sense of mistrust from an increasingly anxious public,” the
group asked that “all marketing of products and treatment
for HIV and AIDS be limited to help-seeking advertisements, which
serve to educate consumers about the disease, inform them that treatment
is available without pushing a specific therapy, and then direct
them to engage a healthcare professional.”
To read more, visit: http://www.newyorkbusiness.com/news.cms?id=12602
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