AIDS Healthcare Foundation Anticipates a Pfizer Valentine's Day Ad Promoting
   Viagra as a Recreational Drug.  Will World's Largest Drug Maker Continue
                    Shameless Holiday Marketing Campaign?

Following Reckless New Year's Eve and Super Bowl Viagra Ads, US' Largest AIDS
 Group Urges FDA to Pull Pfizer's Campaign and Overhaul Its Regulation of All
                     Direct-to-Consumer Drug Advertising

    LOS ANGELES, Feb. 13 /PRNewswire/ -- AIDS Healthcare Foundation, (AHF) the
nation's largest AIDS group and a direct provider of HIV/AIDS medical care to
tens of thousands of AIDS patients in the US, Africa, Central America and
Asia, issued a warning today that it expects Pfizer, Inc., the world's largest
pharmaceutical company, to run a Valentine's Day-themed ad for Viagra as part
of its ongoing shameless holiday-themed advertising campaign for its
blockbuster sex drug.
    For the past several months, Pfizer has been running a direct-to-consumer
holiday-themed print ad campaign that AHF believes promotes unsafe sex by
encouraging the recreational use of Viagra on holidays such as New Year's Eve
and the Super Bowl.  AHF fully expects that Pfizer will not overlook
Valentine's Day as another prime opportunity to play on men's vanity and fears
in order to increase its profit margin and push its erectile dysfunction
product at the expense of public health with another irresponsible Viagra ad.
    Previous ads in Pfizer's Viagra campaign included the New Year and Super
Bowl print ads.  Some of those full-page, color print ads ran in such papers
as The Los Angeles Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Daily News
(and likely appeared in other markets throughout the nation).  The ads depict
a handsome, over-forty male grinning knowingly at the camera with the
taglines:
     *  "Be this Sunday's MVP" (Super Bowl Viagra ad)
     *  "What are you doing New Year's Eve?" (New Year's Eve Viagra ad)

    The Super Bowl advertisement also included the following carefully worded
reminder: "ED is an issue with half of all men over 40."  The use of the word
"issue" seemed designed to capitalize on men's fears, while giving Pfizer wide
latitude to imply that as many as half of all men over 40 are afflicted with
the medical condition Erectile Dysfunction, and could benefit from its
product.  AHF is concerned that the ads encourage recreational use of the
drug, which in turn contributes to the spread of HIV/AIDS, and other sexually
transmitted diseases.
    "This shameless campaign for Viagra is soft on science and heavy on hype,"
said Michael Weinstein, President of AIDS Healthcare Foundation.  "While
Pfizer may be following the letter of the law in its ads with disclaimers and
FDA-mandated product information and warnings at the bottom of its ads, we
believe it fails to honor any spirit of the law or sense of truth in
advertising, and we are asking the FDA to immediately crack down on this
irresponsible direct to consumer ad campaign.  By using such non-scientific
and open-ended language as saying 'ED is an issue' in its ad, Pfizer all but
states that half of all men over 40 need Viagra or another such drug.  Pfizer
is deliberately capitalizing on Viagra's reputation: it feels that these men
need only to be reached out to and treated on national holidays that are known
for partying, binge-drinking, over-indulgence and excess such as New Year's
Eve, the Super Bowl-and we expect, Valentine's Day."
    By advertising a drug that is designed to treat a diagnosed medical
condition as a way to enhance a holiday celebration, Pfizer sends a reckless
message to consumers.  In mid-January, AHF sent a letter to the FDA calling
for a fast-track a review of Pfizer's irresponsible Viagra advertising
campaign.  In its January 10th, 2006 letter to Andrew C. von Eschenbach, M.D.,
Acting Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), AHF requested
that the FDA reevaluate the entire Viagra advertising campaign and consider
asking for its full withdrawal, for the good of the public's health.  A
similar letter was sent to Pfizer CEO, Dr. Hank McKinnell.  In addition, the
Foundation will closely monitor for similar Viagra ads around upcoming
holidays, including St. Patrick's Day, Cinco de Mayo and the Fourth of July.
    The FDA previously made Pfizer pull ads from the controversial "Wild
Thing" Viagra campaign that featured a male model sporting devil's horns and a
tail, and seemed to suggest that users of the drug could recapture the vigor
of their youth.

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