4-Hour Erections Are OK in TV Ads But Talk About Heavy Periods Is Not
TV networks -- who routinely air ads for erectile dysfunction pills -- initially refused to air spots for Lysteda, a new treatment for heavy menstrual bleeding, illustrating the TV business's persistently inconsistent approach to advertising standards when it comes to medical matters: Warnings about erections lasting longer than four hours are OK, but saying things like, "what if your periods are unusually heavy? That may be a medical condition called heavy monthly bleeding," is not. MM&M reports:
The ad's up-front discussion of the condition, featuring the tagline "Help for heavy periods," put network execs off ...Not all TV stations shy away. This NBC affiliate in Hampton Roads, Va., did a two-minute segment on heavy periods and Lysteda. "It probably cut the flow in half," says one patient on the drug.
It's not as if Ferring Pharmaceuticals' approach was heavy-handed (video below). The company employed all the acceptable clichés of feminine hygiene advertising: The TV Spot "depicts women walking serenely through falling rose petals," as MM&M put it. The print ads (click to enlarge) are equally inoffensive.
Print ads, which I'm told are not part of the current campaign but may have been developed for it and rejected, are even more generic: White outfits? Yes. White furniture? Yup. Yoga? No, but soccer is just as good.
I can't prove that if men had periods no one would bat an eyelid at these ads, but I suspect it nonetheless. TV networks just don't have the same standards for all advertisers. The erectile dysfunction category is only the most obvious example. While you can say "erection" on TV, you can't say "vagina" or even "down there" when talking about periods in an ad.
Abortion providers have extreme difficulty getting onto the small screen, even with the most anodyne ads, but pro-lifers get their ads on the Super Bowl. (They also run some gruesome local TV spots, but that's constitutionally required.)
About 22 million women suffer from super-heavy periods, Ferring claims. Until the networks become less squeamish over the sight of falling rose petals, they'll just have to read about it on the internet.
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