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Cialis commercial doesn't play well
February 03, 2004
The commercial promoting Cialis
featured a 50-something couple that may have
turned off younger viewers. -- Submitted photo
Impotence
apparently wasn't the sort of thing football
fans wanted to hear about.
In Sunday's great Super Bowl ad derby, where
the average 30-second spot cost $2.3 million,
Eli Lilly and Co.'s commercial for the erectile
dysfunction drug Cialis was roundly slammed
by viewers.
Lilly's ad ranked 58th among the 60 ads judged
by football viewers in the 16th Annual Ad Meter,
compiled by USA Today. Lilly edged out a Schick
razor ad and a replay of an earlier ad for Levitra,
a competitor drug to Cialis produced by GlaxoSmithKline.
In the same poll, however, local freelance
producer Kent Smith got to claim a Budweiser
ad that ranked eighth.
The ad by Lilly and its Cialis partner Icos
was the first of its kind to specifically mention
that the drug treats erectile dysfunction. Lilly
drove home its message that Cialis is effective
for 36 hours but also was required to list side
effects, such as an "erection lasting longer
than four hours."
Those side effects became the subject of jokes
on the Monday morning airwaves, from the "Bob
& Tom Show" on syndicated radio to
the "Today" show on NBC television.
But Lilly regarded its Cialis ad as a success
in launching its new product and in educating
viewers about Cialis and the condition it treats.
"We know that it's human nature that people
are going to joke about it," said Lilly
spokeswoman Carole Copeland. If Jay Leno jokes
on "The Tonight Show" about Cialis
being nicknamed "the weekend" because
it lasts 36 hours, "then that's great,"
Copeland said. In fact, Lilly has learned from
doctors that patients come in and inquire about
"this new weekend drug."
The significance of the ad meter rankings is
minimal because they lump all viewers into one
demographic group, said Jon Luginbill, head
of The Heavyweights, an advertising firm in
Indianapolis. Twenty-something beer guzzlers
certainly wouldn't react well to the affectionate
50-something couple in the Cialis ads, he said,
but that doesn't mean Lilly didn't connect with
its intended audience.
"I bet that Cialis spot is tremendously
effective," Luginbill said.
The beer drinkers might have preferred local
free-lancer Smith's ad.
He put finishing technical touches on a Budweiser
commercial that shows a coach screaming at a
referee on the sideline. Play-by-play announcers
ask what kind of training the ref had to endure
such a "beating." The scene then cuts
to the ref's wife chewing him out at home on
the couch.
Smith got involved in the commercial in December.
He traveled to Toronto to help ad agency DDB
Chicago shoot and edit several potential Super
Bowl ads for Anheuser-Busch. The beermaker created
more than 100 commercials just for the game.
It then whittled those entries to the nine that
ran Sunday night.
"It was (great) for me personally. I jumped
at it," said Smith, who works from an office
at the Stutz Business Center Downtown.
ASA Productions, which produced music for a
Cadillac ad, said it was just happy to get a
little piece of Super Bowl madness. Its ad wasn't
judged because it aired during the pregame and
postgame shows.
That didn't bother ASA, though.
"The advertisers' exposure was upstaged
by Janet Jackson's exposure," quipped George
Evans, executive producer at ASA Productions
in Indianapolis.
Indeed, the pop star caused a stir when her
halftime singing partner, Justin Timberlake,
ripped off a part of her bustier, exposing her
breast.
ASA still capitalized on its near-Super Bowl
appearance. It sent out post-cards to clients,
made follow-up phone calls, and ran a couple
ads with industry trade publications, all with
a reminder to look for ASA's ad work during
the Super Bowl broadcast.
That hype lured Screen magazine to profile
ASA's two lead composers, Evans said.
"For us, it's vindication," he said.
"There is national, viable, quality work
coming out of Indianapolis."
To view the Super Bowl ads online, visit www.usatoday.com/sports/football/front-admeter.htm.
source:-http://www.indystar.com/articles
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