Or they will be destined to watch a Viagra advertisement on TV every time the Kansas City Royals decide to make the call to their bullpen. For non-baseball enthusiasts, you may not have heard about Pfizer’s incessant media buys during the MLB postseason. Specifically, TBS has shown Viagra’s new commercial , which diverges from the erectile dysfunction company’s familiar montage of manly man-men doing kayak things. This one is a bit more direct. The spot features an attractive 40-something woman cooing in a British accent about sex without any of the child-safe, thinly veiled innuendo. And as evidenced by “baseball Twitter,” folks are upset about it. There are middle-aged men in Kansas City who haven’t watched playoff baseball in their hometown since they applied for their driver’s license – let’s not spoil the end of a 29-year playoff drought with the threat of a whole different kind of suffering, right?
Viagra’s new direction – spoken from the still-sexually-satisfied female perspective – has caught the attention of several national media outlets and has initiated a firestorm on social media. Protesters believe the commercial should not be aired during major national sporting events that occur during primetime hours. This complaint has been levied for years, however. Does GoDaddy.com’s annual super-sexy Super Bowl commercial ring any bells? Regardless, this time around feels different. In my opinion, the outrage stems from the nature of the experience (watching baseball, a more or less quiet sport, with your kid vs. absorbing the overwhelming, noisy spectacle of the Super Bowl), as well as Viagra’s significant shift in messaging strategy. To me, there remains a certain nostalgia that accompanies baseball in this country. Even after football has eviscerated America’s pastime in terms of eyeballs, there is something youthful – fatherly, even – about baseball. While I’m still unsure whether I agree with the flooding discontent surrounding this commercial, I understand where it’s coming from. Obviously, middle-aged men represent Viagra’s target market, but is it possible the company missed by promoting the little blue pill during such a father-son friendly time?
My dad died unexpectedly when I was 23. Some of my happiest memories are sitting in the nosebleeds with him in the sweltering Kansas summer heat. I was born two years after the Royals beat the Cardinals in the 1985 World Series, so every fall for the duration of our time on earth together he would reminisce about how great the Royals and their fans used to be. He talked about it all the time.
Can you guess what he would have never wanted to talk about?
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