FirstMed Consulting Blog

Jerry Hall , the super model, actress, and former wife of Mick Jagger , was recently appointed as the “Global Ambassador for [Levitra’s] Erectile Dysfunction Campaign.” Bayer HealthCare, producers of the third place brand in a category dominated by Viagra and Lilly ICOS’s Cialis, is hoping that the global icon will inject much needed sex appeal to their marketing strategy. Hall has declared: “I’m working with Bayer HealthCare to encourage men to confront erectile dysfunction and take action. It might be a conversation with your doctor or maybe with your partner, but it’s never too late to get the most from your love life. A healthy love life is not and should not be the preserve of those in their 20s and 30s. It’s important at all ages”.

In the past, Levitra used male images and spokepeople in its ads — e.g., football coach Mike Ditka to launch the “Levitra Challenge” during Super Bowl XXXVIII. However, it seems that the ads with men telling men to see their docs to ask about ED are duds. Cialis may have gained market share in part due to its ads that portrayed couples on the verge of coupling as it were.

One might point out that Pfizer enjoyed great success by casting humorless elder statesman Bob Dole as spokesperson for Viagra. But at the time erectile dysfunction was a very little discussed condition and Pfizer cunningly gave us permission to mock the failed presidential hopeful about his sex life while we simultaneously and silently thanked Jesus for the discovery of the little blue pill. As soon as everyone on the planet knew about Viagra, the inherent snicker factor of its product was diluted and Pfizer brazenly shifted its marketing strategy. Their advertising isn’t even remotely directed at men with erectile dysfunction anymore. It’s full of vibrant sports heroes (NASCAR drivers declaring, “Gentlemen, start your engines!”), attractive professional types strutting through offices and most recently, ads featuring guys with the blue V from Viagra’s brand logo rising behind their heads like a pair of Devil horns. The slogan? “Get back to mischief?” Pfizer is now selling sexual performance. The not-so-very subtle new message is obvious: every guy can have a mischievous, raging, new and improved penis.

If the marketing maxim ‘sex sells’ still holds true then Jerry Hall is the perfect ambassador for Levitra’s campaign. She is a global sex symbol who embodies an open, confident and bold approach to sex and relationships. According to the Texan -”My mother said it was simple to keep a man, you must be a maid in the living room, a cook in the kitchen and a whore in the bedroom. I said I’d hire the other two and take care of the bedroom bit.”