# Viagra Commercial Guys \*Don’t\* Know How to Get Things Done? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 22, 2014, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/viagra-commercial-guys-don-t-know-how-to-get-things-done/686710 "2014-04-22T20:00:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![jerez](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c68b51/32.png) [@jerez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jerez)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2014, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/viagra-commercial-guys-don-t-know-how-to-get-things-done/686710/21 "2014-04-23T20:33:41Z")
Presumably, the target audience are men who think they’ve got a problem and are willing to pay for a solution. Pretty basic advertising ploy, I’d say. It only has to make sense to the first customer in line, which is the company paying for the advertising. In this case, the idea is probably to associate the product with resourcefulness, which would appeal to most men. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2014, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/viagra-commercial-guys-don-t-know-how-to-get-things-done/686710/22 "2014-04-23T20:41:51Z")
I almost miss Enzyte Bob and his smiling wife … ---
**Author:** ![dracoi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@dracoi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dracoi)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2014, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/viagra-commercial-guys-don-t-know-how-to-get-things-done/686710/23 "2014-04-23T20:52:56Z")
Sometimes I wonder if the viagra commercials aren’t actually aimed at the women. For example, you never see an ED commercial in which a man rescues a hot 20-something woman with a flat tire. “The most interesting man in the world” has babes hanging off him left and right, but that’s just to sell beer. No… the guys on ED commercials are hanging out at home with their wives, taking long baths or solving self-inflicted problems on the job. Isn’t this the textbook image of what a _woman_ wants to see in an ED treatment? ---
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2014, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/viagra-commercial-guys-don-t-know-how-to-get-things-done/686710/24 "2014-04-23T23:52:57Z")
“Viagra: Strong enough for a man, but made for a woman.” ---
**Author:** ![Inna\_Minnit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Inna\_Minnit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inna_Minnit)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2014, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/viagra-commercial-guys-don-t-know-how-to-get-things-done/686710/25 "2014-04-23T23:59:58Z")
> [@Blue\_Blistering\_Barnacle](#): > > I always find myself wondering at the end of these commercials- > > If you’re at “the age of knowing”, why do have to ask someone else (“your doctor”) if you’re healthy enough to have sex? :dubious: Presumably because you don’t have an EKG or Echo machine just laying around to check heart function and stuff. You know the small print and the hushed warnings? The part that tells you these products could dangerously lower your blood pressure? Yeah. Those. ---
**Author:** ![that\_darn\_cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/59ef9b/32.png) [@that\_darn\_cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/that_darn_cat)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2014, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/viagra-commercial-guys-don-t-know-how-to-get-things-done/686710/26 "2014-04-24T01:41:33Z")
The best part of those Viagra adds for me is the blue tint everything seems to have…which is an actual side effect of Viagra. ---
**Author:** ![Defensive\_Indifference](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/defensive_indifference/32/6502_2.png) [@Defensive\_Indifference](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Defensive_Indifference)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2014, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/viagra-commercial-guys-don-t-know-how-to-get-things-done/686710/27 "2014-04-24T03:45:22Z")
> [@Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](#): > > Is there at least a “don’t try this at home” warning? Hmm… Not that I noticed. I’ll try to keep a lookout for that when I see the ad again. Car ads have that little notice “Professional driver. Closed course.” when they show a car backing out of a driveway, so maybe there is a little “Don’t open a hot radiator” notice that flies across the Viagra ad. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2014, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/viagra-commercial-guys-don-t-know-how-to-get-things-done/686710/28 "2014-04-24T06:04:45Z")
I haven’t seen the ads, but it sounds to me that these guys problem is not hardness, it’s just that they don’t know how to operate anything, or how to put it in the right place. Viagra doesn’t help if you aim for the bellybutton. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2014, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/viagra-commercial-guys-don-t-know-how-to-get-things-done/686710/29 "2014-04-24T16:15:29Z")
> [@Bayard](#): > > Hmm… Not that I noticed. I’ll try to keep a lookout for that when I see the ad again. Car ads have that little notice “Professional driver. Closed course.” when they show a car backing out of a driveway, so maybe there is a little “Don’t open a hot radiator” notice that flies across the Viagra ad. OK, I can’t let this mean spirited ignorance go on. This is getting out of hand (so to speak…) My manly 4 wheel drive pickup started overheating while I was up near Flagstaff (a Rugged Man town, with gorgeous western mountain scenery and a name that fits in with discussion of erections…). The truck had developed a leak in the water pump, where it attached to the block. I was about 20 miles out from Flag, so I was on my own. I was prepared with a full kit, so I grabbed my tool (stop snickering!) and was able to tighten the bolts and stop the leaking, but the radiator was short of water. What could I do? I had a cooler, so I melted ice into the radiator, to get the level up enough so I could drive back into town and buy some new anti-freeze. I was neither enveloped in a cloud of superheated steam, nor suffered severe burns. As a matter of fact, NOTHING bad happened. The truck ran for years after that without any problems. I didn’t ruin the radiator, nor crack the block. ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/22080_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2014, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/viagra-commercial-guys-don-t-know-how-to-get-things-done/686710/30 "2014-04-24T16:28:26Z")
> [@F.U.Shakespeare](#): > > “Viagra: Strong enough for a man, but made for a woman.” Definitely laughed aloud at this one! ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2014, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/viagra-commercial-guys-don-t-know-how-to-get-things-done/686710/31 "2014-04-24T16:29:27Z")
it the time it took for you to get your hands on your hard tool the cooling system had relaxed and lost pressure (or no longer had it due to the expulsion of fluids). the amount you added may have been warmed by the hot radiator and the block may have cooled so that it didn’t crack the block. problems do occur many times for others. that why the cautions and the pills. a real man would have used one of his beers on the tv commercial. ---
**Author:** ![Wile\_E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c37758/32.png) [@Wile\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wile_E)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2014, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/viagra-commercial-guys-don-t-know-how-to-get-things-done/686710/32 "2014-04-24T19:36:27Z")
They are probably doing just as well at problem-solving and decision-making as most men with full raging boners. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2014, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/viagra-commercial-guys-don-t-know-how-to-get-things-done/686710/33 "2014-04-24T19:36:28Z")
> [@](#): > > Quoth **FairyChatMom** : > > I know it’s a different product, but the Cialis commercials are prime examples of non sequiturs, as far as I’m concerned. > > “You make a great team - it’s been that way since you met. But your erectile dysfunction, that could be a matter of blood flow.” That makes sense to me. A guy who’s having a hard time getting it up might be worried that it means that the spark has left his relationship, or that he and his wife just don’t have “chemistry” any more, or something like that. The ad is meant to reassure them: No, your relationship is just fine, you still love each other, you just have a simple medical problem that has a simple solution. As for the weird and indirect commercials, that’s a result of the laws concerning advertisement of pharmaceuticals. If your ad tells the benefits of a drug, then it also has to list the side effects and counterindications. Which at worst might scare off your customers, and even at best is probably boring. So you have a choice of showing an ad that’s simple and direct, but has all of that scary and boring stuff in it, or showing an ad that doesn’t actually say anything, but doesn’t have to have it. Yes, sometimes the ad agency will go for the full-disclosure route and try to make it interesting, but not always. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2014, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/viagra-commercial-guys-don-t-know-how-to-get-things-done/686710/34 "2014-04-24T20:22:34Z")
> [@Shakes](#): > > Well, I know one thing’s for sure. You’re NOT going to have sex in two separate bathtubs. What the hell is up with that? As someone else suggested, perhaps it appeals to women. ---
**Author:** ![Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2014, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/viagra-commercial-guys-don-t-know-how-to-get-things-done/686710/35 "2014-04-24T20:29:40Z")
> [@Wile\_E](#): > > They are probably doing just as well at problem-solving and decision-making as most men with full raging boners. Better maybe, since they aren’t as, you know . . . distracted. ---
**Author:** ![Kimballkid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b5a626/32.png) [@Kimballkid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimballkid)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2014, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/viagra-commercial-guys-don-t-know-how-to-get-things-done/686710/36 "2014-04-24T20:30:54Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > I almost miss Enzyte Bob and his smiling wife … [Enzyte Bob](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cR5fYm4Pcdc) is doing well indeed. And has a very happy misses at home. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2014, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/viagra-commercial-guys-don-t-know-how-to-get-things-done/686710/37 "2014-04-24T21:32:36Z")
> [@jimbuff314](#): > > Well, you can’t just come out and talk about dicks getting and staying hard on network > tv. Or cable tv. Or family hour tv. So, they’re attempting a masculine end-around > in much the same way that commercials for feminine dryness, feminine odor issues > do feminine end-arounds to peddle their products. > > It’s an area of selling pretty liberally strewn with land-mines. Tread gingerly. > > (I’m sure everyone is aware of this. I just felt that it needed to be put into > print, lest the thread turn into an end-around.) A few years back there was a third penis pill whose name escapes me now, with an ad campaign about “getting back in the game” and showing a guy throwing a football through a tire swing. Way too subtle for me, apparently… I thought it was a drug for muscle pain like Celebrex. ---
**Author:** ![nevadaexile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/eb8c5e/32.png) [@nevadaexile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nevadaexile)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2014, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/viagra-commercial-guys-don-t-know-how-to-get-things-done/686710/38 "2014-04-24T21:46:35Z")
> [@F.U.Shakespeare](#): > > “Viagra: Strong enough for a man, but made for a woman.” +1 A classic line,sir. May I borrow it? The Cialis commercials also get me. They show a series of apparently happy middle-aged couples whose relationship is apparently hinged upon the availability of a drug which prevents ED. A real life commercial would show two frustrated people in a bed trying not to look at one another. Also, I notice that ALL ED commercials only show male-female couples. Not that I have done anything other than wonder about it, but I have to imagine that many middle-aged gay couples would also have a need for one partner or the other (or worse BOTH) to use the product. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2014, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/viagra-commercial-guys-don-t-know-how-to-get-things-done/686710/39 "2014-04-25T01:26:24Z")
I sit there howling with laughter over all the little romantic touches. Slow dancing. Sharing. Caring. Flirting! Strolling hand in hand on the beach. Nuzzling, head on shoulder, twirling of hair. Like it’s assuring the women, oh, he will turn into a stallion, yes, but he will act like a guy in the most cliched personal ad ever written in the 70’s. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2014, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/viagra-commercial-guys-don-t-know-how-to-get-things-done/686710/40 "2014-04-30T21:32:01Z")
Just had a thought for a new ad campaign – Viagra as a diagnostic test for relationships. “Maybe it IS her. Find out for sure by taking our little blue pill. If you still can’t get an erection, maybe it’s time to trade up.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/viagra-commercial-guys-don-t-know-how-to-get-things-done/686710.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/viagra-commercial-guys-don-t-know-how-to-get-things-done/686710.md?page=3)