Watch Viagra Market to Women

In the past, most Viagra commercials have featured attractive, older men who are usually engaged in masculine, yet sophisticated hobbies — like sailing or wearing cowboy boots in the mud. However, the company famous for it's erectile dysfunction drug recently changed its marketing strategy: According to AdWeek, a new TV spot released by Viagra not only features a woman, but it also targets women. (Pauses for effect.)

Yep, AdWeek notes that the minute-long spot, produced by ad agency BBDO, is actually Viagra's first commercial to feature a woman (and only a woman) as well as the word "erection" not during the description portion. In the commercial, an older, blonde woman in a flowy blue dress lounges on a bed in some sort of bungalow-type structure on the beach (because, why not?). She reminds us, in a soothing voice, that "plenty of guys have this issue," and that Viagra helps guys get an erection and keep an erection." Oh, and she's also British — because, why not?

So why the sudden change from rugged, older men paired with the kind of voice-overs most comedians dream of parodying, to this random, serious, blonde woman on the beach? According to the Associated Press, this is Pfizer Inc's big new strategy to boost sales and combat competition with cheaper generic varieties over in Europe. There's also the fact that the drug's patent will expire in three years, which means there will be generic versions of Viagra available in the U.S. as well. That strategy being marketing the drug to women: The people who are, apparently, more effected by ED than their male partners, says AP.

The Daily Beast notes that, apparently, the best way to go about doing that is with a spokeswoman, as opposed to spokesman. Executives at Pfizer told AP they hope the ad will encourage women to talk about the subject their effected partner.

Take a look at the spokeswoman, in all her peaceful glory:

As you can see, this ad is light-years away from what we're used to seeing in a Viagra ad: the men, the empowering voice-over that simply implies that these guys have a problem, and absolutely zero women.

Aside from the fact that it's impossible not to giggle during the ad, I'm curious to see if this sales tactic actually works. If it's awkward for me, a young woman, to watch, I can only imagine how men feel when this woman refers to them as "honey." More so curious to see how SNL, and the Internet in general, choose to poke fun at the spot — the possibilities are endless.

Image: Getty Images, Giphy