Pfizer’s ‘Viva Viagra’ Ads Promote Party Use, Says AHF

July 25th, 2007

The following is being issued by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation: AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), is hosting a media availability all day today and Tuesday to comment upon a reckless new television advertising campaign for the erectile dysfunction drug, Viagra, premiering tonight during the NBC Nightly News. The campaign, titled, “Viva Viagra!” was created by Pfizer Inc., the world’s largest pharmaceutical company for its erectile- dysfunction drug Viagra (sildenafil citrate). The slick ad features 40-ish year-old men singing “Viva Viagra” to the tune of Elvis Presley’s immortal party anthem, “Viva Las Vegas!”

“Pfizer is clearly dovetailing off of the city of Las Vegas’ recent and enormously successful ‘What Happens in Vegas, Stays in Vegas’ campaign with its own new ‘Viva Viagra’ ad campaign,” said Michael Weinstein, AIDS Healthcare Foundation President. “Unfortunately, as far as Viagra is concerned, what happens in Vegas may NOT stay in Vegas when the use of Viagra as a party drug is encouraged with irresponsible ads like this-there is a real possibility of increased STD and HIV exposure a result of Pfizer’s encouragement of the reckless use of its ED drug, Viagra. ”

A Brief History and Background of Erectile Dysfunction (ED) Drugs, and Pfizer’s Advertising of Viagra

Viagra, the first erectile dysfunction drug on the market, was patented by Pfizer in 1996 and subsequently was approved for use in erectile dysfunction , on March 27, 1998, becoming the first pill approved to treat erectile dysfunction in the United States. It was offered for sale in the United States later that year, and quickly became a blockbuster drug for Pfizer: annual sales of Viagra in the period 1999-2001 exceeded $1 billion. Early advertisements for Viagra included television and print ads featuring septuagenarian and former Senator and Presidential candidate, Bob Dole (R, Kansas), who, as a spokesperson for Viagra, lent significant credibility and gravitas to Pfizer and the drug, particularly as he was widely-known to have suffered from, and undergone surgery for, prostate cancer.

With the introduction of two competing erectile dysfunction drugs in 2003, Eli Lilly & Company’s Cialis (tadalafil), and Bayer AG’s Levitra (vardenafil), Pfizer’s marketing of Viagra changed dramatically. One subsequent campaign for Viagra feature an attractive forty something year-old man sporting an impish grin and airbrushed devil’s horns on his head.

Earlier last year, AIDS Healthcare Foundation criticized Pfizer for running a holiday-themed print ad campaign that AHF believed promoted unsafe sex by encouraging the recreational use of Viagra on holidays such as New Year’s Eve and the Super Bowl. The ads, seen in The Wall Street Journal and The L.A. Daily News, among other publications, depicted a handsome, forty-ish male grinning knowingly at the camera with taglines, such as “What are you doing New Year’s Eve?” and “Be this Sunday’s MVP.” Pfizer continued this irresponsible advertising campaign to withdraw its previous ads, which inferred that men could re-capture their youthful vigor and become a devil-horned “wild thing” by taking Viagra.

AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) is the nation’s largest oldest and largest non-profit HIV/AIDS healthcare, research, prevention and education provider, currently provides medical care, including lifesaving antiretroviral treatment, and/or services to more than 50,000 individuals in 15 countries worldwide in the US, Africa, Latin America/Caribbean and Asia.

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