Sildenafil citrate may not carry a lot of associations, but the brand name for this compound, Viagra, certainly does. Here’s how Viagra’s brand image has changed over the years.
Developed in the early 1990s by Pfizer pharmaceutical chemists in the UK, sildenafil citrate was developed to treat high blood pressure and symptoms of angina. It may not have been great for its original intended purpose, but an unexpected side effect of more satisfying erections turned Viagra into a household name synonymous with treatment of erectile dysfunction (ED).
Here’s how Viagra’s image has evolved in the 15-plus years since its 1998 introduction.
1998 – An Instant Hit
In June 1998, just three months after its introduction, Newsweek magazine called Viagra the “hottest new drug in history almost everywhere in the world,” an unequivocal statement if ever there was one. Pfizer started out with a low key approach to advertising the product, enlisting former US Senator Bob Dole for early television commercials. It was later in 1998 that Senator Dole was hired for the drug’s television campaign, which was really aimed at increasing awareness of and initiating discussion of the topic of ED, something many men were understandably reluctant to bring up with their healthcare practitioners.
2001 – No Competition
Viagra didn’t really need much in the way of advertising, because no competitors in the same drug class arrived until 2003. After only three years on the market, Viagra achieved “blockbuster” drug status, with sales of over $1 billion per year. By 2001, the drug was synonymous with ED treatment. Even after the introduction of competitors Levitra and Cialis in 2003, Viagra held onto 92% of the market for prescribed ED drugs.
2007 Complaints About Vegas-Themed Ads
But all wasn’t perfect in the ED treatment universe. In the early 2000s, reports of side effects including cardiac events and a condition called cyanopsia (where everything appears to have a blue tint) started getting media coverage. Not that the reports did much to curb enthusiasm for Viagra. Complaints also started appearing concerning the “message” that easy availability of drugs like Viagra were sending.
In 2007, the AIDS Healthcare Foundation focused attention on an advertising campaign that appeared during the NBC Nightly News broadcasts. The campaign, titled “Viva Viagra!” featured middle-aged men singing “Viva Viagra” to the tune of Elvis Presley’s “Viva Las Vegas.” This was also during the height of Las Vegas’s ad campaign with the tagline “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas,” and the AIDS Healthcare Foundation felt that the Viagra ads promoted reckless use of the drug as a party aid and a gateway to casual, unsafe sex.
2009 – Pfizer Tones It Down, But Not Too Much
In 2009, Pfizer put out a Viagra ad with a completely different ethos. Its “Couple” ad features an adorable older couple arriving home from a night out over a background of a sweet romantic ballad titled “What I Feel” by Catatonia. As the couple makes their way up the stairs, a series of flashbacks occurs showing the couple when they were younger.
The year 2009 also marked the 11th anniversary of the introduction of Viagra, and Pfizer went forward with a sales campaign with a sense of humor about ED. The company had Canadian ad agency Taxi create Viagra-themed party blowers to be given to the company’s sales teams to celebrate over a decade of treating ED.
2010 – Pfizer Addresses the Elephant in the Room
In 2010, Academy Award-winning actor Michael Douglas made headlines in AARP magazine by admitting that he used ED medications and praised the drugs that “can make us all feel younger.” But although Viagra had been on the market over a decade, and Levitra and Cialis for seven years, there was still the issue of bringing up the subject with healthcare practitioners – the proverbial “elephant in the room” that men were reluctant to acknowledge. An Australian television ad that year featured an actual elephant in a room with a man speaking with his doctor, and encouraged men to speak up, because healthcare workers aren’t fazed by talk of ED, and patients shouldn’t be either.
2013 – Giving Up Isn’t Who You Are
A recent ad campaign played upon the strengths of the middle-aged man, a man who has the knowledge and experience to “make things happen.” The video features a ruggedly handsome man setting up a campfire on a beach and discovering his lighter doesn’t work. The voiceover declares, “You’ve reached the age where giving up isn’t who you are,” as the man retrieves a piece of flint and a metal knife handle, starting a fire while his partner makes the tent all cozy. Overlaid onto a track of John Lee Hooker’s bluesy “Dimples,” it makes middle age seem anything but sexually boring.
Giving up isn’t who Pfizer is, either. By continuing to fight counterfeit drugs, selling the drug directly to consumers online, and maintaining a good chunk of the ED medication market despite increased competition from competitors, the company is determined that the general public will continue to associate the name Viagra with success in the bedroom
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