Pfizer has chosen Avon ad agency Adams & Knight to market Viagra in Africa and the Middle East. This conjures the image of ladies going door to door with boutique decanters of Viagra tablets, or Tupperware parties for ED drugs. Oh, wait. It's not the ad agency for Avon Products - it's an ad agency headquartered in Avon, Connecticut. Nevermind. Viagra is hardly new to the Middle East, though. There's been a huge market for erectile dysfunction drugs in Arab states since the drug came on the market, and Saudi Arabia is one of the world's biggest consumers of Viagra. In fact, some figures say that Arab men have one of the highest percentages of impotence in the world - about 10%, and half of the men over 40 in the United Arab Emirates have some degree of erectile dysfunction. The reasons: a lot if it is stress and bad lifestyle choices.
An article in the International Journal of Impotence Research noted that Viagra is "highly effective in individuals from developing countries with cultural, racial, and religious characteristics differing markedly from those of the United States and European countries" where Viagra was developed and initially marketed. Not sure why it wouldn't, since sildenafil works on a physiological level, no matter what your religious beliefs.
Marketing Viagra, on the other hand, does have to take regional and religious culture into account. Muslim societies are conservative, and any suggestion of sexual content is unacceptable. Advertising has to be a lot more coy, and even tame US prime time ads, with smiling middle-aged couples cutting a rug, would be out.
Reem Nouh, the new head of Pfizer's Viagra campaign in the Middle East and Africa, has her work cut out for her, but apparently she's well qualified - fluent in Arabic, lived and worked in the Middle East, and has lead many successful pharma accounts in the same countries. Apparently A&K has already started rolling out the campaign, but press releases are vague on the details. We'd be interested to see what approach they're taking to raise Viagra's already high profile.
