This morning, I clicked on an article about Pfizer ending its $31 million-a-year Viagra sponsorship of NFL games. It is titled, Viagra won’t advertise on NFL games, signaling softening ad market. Really. Well, I added the bolding.
Apparently, Viagra is going off patent this year, and so instead of buying cheap brand name Viagra in shady online pharmacies, men everywhere will soon be able to buy cheap generic viagra at their neighborhood megalocorp chain pharmacy.
Cialis is also about to go off patent, and then it’s going to be a generic boner pill free-for-all. There’s a deal in the works to sell over-the counter Cialis once the patent expires, if the FDA approves it. Since the Trump administration is all about getting rid of regulations, looks like that’ll be happening...any day now.
Jay Busbee, Yahoo NFL reporter, very much enjoys making jokes about things becoming softer when talking about no more boner pill ads during NFL games. In addition to his headline, he also has these lines:
- Ad Age reports that preseason ad spending is the softest since the 2008 recession
- Viagra, which popped up on the market 20 years ago
- One of the NFL’s Top 40 advertisers, one which spent an estimated $31 million a year on sponsorship, won’t be rolling out ads with come-hither older women appealing to couch-bound dudes any longer.
- Cialis loses its own patent exclusivity later in the season; if it too decides to pull out of the ad market
I thought I was done with all these puns, but then I clicked the link to the Ad Age article:
Deflategate 2.0: Big-Spending Viagra and Cialis Are Pulling Out of the NFL
TV networks are trying to keep a stiff upper lip as the once-lucrative erectile dysfunction sector has begun sagging like a doctored football in Tom Brady’s throwing hand.
Seriously.