AIDS group hits new Viagra 'New Year's Eve' promotion

LOS ANGELES (AFP) - An anti-
AIDS organization slammed pharmaceutical giant Pfizer for running advertisements promoting the use of virility drug Viagra in connection with New Year's Eve celebrations.
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Michael Weinstein, president of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation in Los Angeles, demanded Viagra producer Pfizer withdraw its advertising campaign that suggests Viagra use as a way to ring in the new year.

"What are you doing New Year's Eve?", says Pfizer's full-page advertisement in the Wall Street Journal, showing a fit, middle-aged man with greying hair.

"Fact: Viagra can help guys with all degrees of erectile dysfunction -- from mild to severe," the ad text reads.

Weinstein branded Pfizer's campaign "irresponsible" and "reckless".

"It is an outrage that, by referencing the biggest party night of the year, Pfizer would employ an advertising strategy that encourages the use of Viagra as a 'party drug'," he said in a statement.

AHF said Pfizer is suggesting that having erectile dysfunction is not a prerequisite for obtaining a Viagra prescription.

This is "part of a pattern of irresponsible direct-to-consumer advertising by the drug industry," Weinstein said, citing other advertisements which portray AIDS therapies as simple and trouble-free.

But Pfizer spokesman Bryant Haskins insisted the advertising campaign targets only people truly suffering from erection problems.

"It is a serious medical condition that affects about 30 million American men, and Pfizer has worked hard to destigmatize the condition of erectile dysfunction," Haskins said.

"We have drawn on extensive research in an effort to motivate men to speak to their doctors about (erectile dysfunction), and that's part of what our advertising campaigns are about".

He also denied that the company's advertisements encourage unprotected sex.

"Contrary to allegations that the ads promote unsafe sex, our ads specifically urge readers to remember to protect themselves and their partners from sexually transmitted diseases."

Im not really seeing what business of the AIDs group it is whether Pfizer runs an ad or not.

Or is this group trying to say that Viagra is a cause of AIDs in the USA?

Sounds like just another political group trying to get some free press over the holiday season when they should be concentrating on educating people about the dangers of AIDs.

Regards,

Lee

I will say that the print ad does seem to kind of suggest that Viagra is a party drug, and it's been shown that Viagra use will actually aid the virus entering the body (by causing swelling of blood vessles and breaking them near mucus membranes or something)

That being said, if you're dumb enough to use any drug as a party drug in uncontrolled situations, you get what you asked for.

i kind of agrree with what lee said it looks like another focus group that has lost their focus.