D O W DOW

D – O – W DOW!

If you are old enough to remember the stereo wars, raise your hand!

That media campaign, the fight for business by various stereo retailers drove me nuts! You could not pick up a newspaper or magazine without every other page being a full-page ad. And television and radio were almost impossible, commercial after commercial after loud, stupid commercial (this was BEFORE those terrific remote ‘mute’ buttons).

There was even a time when I wondered if anything else was being sold in America! The stereo ‘wars’ seemed to last forever, in fact I think it was at least a couple of years. By then you would have thought that everyone in the country would have had purchased several of them, one for each room. I thought it would never end.

I actually thought I’d never be as irritated or aggravated by ANY ad campaign again. Not so!

The ED, Erectile Dysfunction ads have filled that void. They are everywhere, all the time. There is no escape from seeing heterosexual middle-aged couples of all races, but only of upper classes, be touchy-feely for 60 seconds. Gag! (No pun intended!)

Not to mention that this class of drugs, by their very nature, discriminate against women. Do not women get diabetes or high blood pressure, or high cholesterol and experience a diminished sex drive and response? Of course they do. But no one cares about the female aspect of aging and sexuality, except women, and they do not have nearly the $$$ to spend on pharmaceuticals as do men!

It also irks me that the focus of these ads (indeed, of our society in general now) are on ‘having sex’. Whatever happened to making love? Surely, the romantic middle-aged couples featured in these ads make love, they’d probably never conceive (pun intended!) of such a relationship bonding act as simple sex...

The clincher, for me, of this massive media campaign is the listing of the many side effects of these drugs. They include but are not limited to: blushing (these ads make me blush!), feeling feint when going from a sitting to standing position, (hell, every time I stand, I feel feint, and it’s been that way for years now!), and lastly, if you experience an erection lasting more than four hours, seek immediate medical help (actually, if you experience an erection lasting longer than hour, give ME a call!).