Viagra

Bad Ad: A middle-aged man talks to his reflection in storefront windows while walking down the sidewalk. His reflection tries to convince him to talk to his doctor about his E.D.

My Aditude: First of all, I have a question or two about anti-E.D. commercials in general. Are there really that many men who need these products? And haven't the ones who do need them already found out about them and are using them, if they so choose? Do we really need to see these ads with the frequency that we do?

That said, if you're going to advertise a man talking with or to himself, how realistic is it to think that a grown man would speak aloud in public to his reflection in a window? Yes, I understand that this process is really only taking place inside his head, but the ad writers have him talking out loud for everyone to hear. Does no one notice this guy having a one-sided conversation? I suppose there may be some people out there who would do this, but not an otherwise normal-looking gentleman like this guy.

If you really want to let us in on the dialog inside his head, make it more fanciful still and less public. Use the little angel on one shoulder and devil on the other gag.

Marketing failure: The message here -- in case you missed it -- is that you should talk to your doctor about this problem. And that's where this ad fails, because the viewer is more drawn to the unreal, public conversation than to the message buried within it.