Margi notes a commercial for genital herpes medication that annoys her.
I see her point, although in the advertiser's defense, more than 1 in 5 people over the age of 12 have the condition. Which, assuming the methodology for reaching that figure is accurate, means that every single one of us knows people with this problem, whether we know it or not. That any number of people reading this weblog have the condition. Rather startling, eh? The advertisers are obviously seeking to remove the shame-factor, make it seem normal and not horrifying, and don't much care what other people think.
That said, it's still a moderately annoying commercial. ;-)
Then again, it's nowhere near as annoying, to me, as the commercial from some years ago with the daughter talking to her mom. "Mom, what do you do when you don't feel, you know, 'fresh?'"
[Shudder]
But the topper, for me, is the one on TV right now with the following disclaimer:
"Erections lasting more than four hours, although rare, may require medical intervention." Hey! Thanks for the tip! Good to know! Really!
You know, one day I'm going to write a long essay on how our culture has been fundamentally changed by sex education in the schools. Those of us in the 40-ish age bracket (say, 35 to 45) were the first generation taught all the mechanics of sex in school. I remember how they used to say that by teaching us all this, it would lower the rate of teen pregnancy and STDs. Well, it did, but only by a little bit. On the other hand, it didn't make us more sexually promiscuous; indeed, we appear to be a bit less casual about sex than our 'boomer parents.
But it's certainly made our generation, and younger generations, one hell of a lot less shy about discussing these things, hasn't it?
That said, I'm still not certain I really need to be told 2-3 times a day that erections lasting more than four hours might require medical intervention. [squirm]
Dean,
"Erections lasting more than four hours, although rare, may require medical intervention." Hey! Thanks for the tip! Good to know! Really!
You know they put that in there as a feature disguised as a bug, knowing that a lot of men's first thought would be "Four hours? Woo-hoo!" The "medical intervention" part of the sentence would get quietly set aside.
Most pharmaceutical commercials are annoying, especially the ones that don't tell you even what a drug is supposed to do, only that you should "ask your doctor" about it, presumably because the manufacturer hasn't yet gotten approval to sell the drug for the specific purpose everyone wants it for. You're supposed to just know already, assuming you have the affliction it's (unofficially) recommended for. Rogaine commercials were like that a few years ago. All they could evidently do was provide subtle visual cues (as in "This woman is wearing a hat, and very few women wear hats these days. Maybe her hair is falling out?"). It was so obvious that the designer of the commercial was torn between the need to get out a message and the requirement not to actually say the message that watching the struggle was sometimes almost entertaining.
But they're nothing to the "feminine care" commercials. Please, I do not want to see how superior your absorptive materials are and how liquid-proof your double lining is while trying to eat dinner. (And introducing every such product with a woman perversely wearing snow-white pants at "that time" is getting so old now. Even the customers will eventually notice these gags. Cut it out.)
Most guys would think that? Hell I'd think most women would think it!
By the way, have I ever mentioned that I'm so clueless I only recently realized what panty liners are actually for? Ooh, we don't need to have this conversation... %-)
Erm. . . .glad I helped with a topic. *snicker*
As for me? I think the disclaimer should be something along the lines of:
Erections lasting for four or more hours means your wife ain't doing something right.
But that's just me.
The Levitra ads featuring Mike Ditka are truly disturbing. In all these ads, they use the act of throwing a football through a tire as a visual metaphor for sex ... then they show Ditka, who, after discussing his "issues" with us, throws a football through a tire, turns to the camera and says, "you GOTTA love that!"
Dear God. At least he didn't say "whoomp, there it is!"
Well, with Cialis (and to a lesser extent, Viagra) you won't usually lose your erection after ejeculating; if stimulation continues, so does the woody.
So yeah, I agree there's probably some 'bug as feature' to that warning, but it is a serious matter. Who wants to have sex for 10 hours and then have their member fall off?
Ahh, anyone remember the Cruex ads? "Let's talk about Jock Itch!" Driven off the air even as feminine "freshness" products were being hocked left and right. Always got a chuckle out of that... though I suppose it might be that the ads fell flat...
Remember the old Buddy Hackett routine about this?
A guy walks in to the pharmacy and says to the female pharmacist, well I have this erection, and well it's been there for days, it's starting to hurt, can you give me anything for it?
The lady pharmacist says , "hmm, I'll have to ask my sister who owns the shop about that" , and goes in the back.
After a few minutes she comes back out, and the man, in great pain, asks "well , is there anything you can give me for this?"
The lady pharmacist says, "well , the best we can do is $10,000 and 25% of the pharmacy"
har!
I'm with Chris. Da Coach is very high on my list of people I never ever want to hear talking about sex.
"Family Guy" had a great spoof of the "not so fresh" commercial in which the girl tries to ask the question delicately several times, and her mom keeps on not understanding what she's asking, and when the mom finally gets it she goes "Oh! No, no, God no!"
>>"Erections lasting more than four hours, although rare, may require medical intervention."
I laugh everytime I see that commercial. It's really cool the way they slip that voice in at the end of the commercial. I don't think I'd wait 4 hours. Somewhere around hour 3, I'd be heading to the hospital.
I've learned a lot from those commercials. I never realized that having herpes was so much fun. White water rafting, walking on the beach, rock climbing, hot dates with beautiful members of the opposite sex. Herpes: Your ticket to the good life!
There is another commercial about a tampon that really makes me sick to my stomach.The commercial shows a guy and a girl in a small wooden boat out on a lake.The woman looks down and points to a leak coming from a small hole in the floor of the boat.While the guy turns to look for something to plug the hole the woman reaches in her purse and pulls out a tampon.She then proceeds to stick the tampon in the hole and slide the cover off exposing the string of the tampon and everything.That grossed me out and it must have done the same to other people because they seem to have removed the string scene the last time I saw it.
BryanC -- yeah, me too! Silly me, I always thought you could get all that with a box of Tampax. :: smacks forehead ::