Musings of a technophile

While I was watching TV last week I noticed something about how drugs relating to sex are treated differently for men and women. This shouldn’t come at a big surprise, after all men and women do think about sex differently, however I just thought it was kind of funny.

For instance, let’s take the Enzyte commercial’s, you know, the ones with “Smiling Bob” and “the one daily pill for natural male enhancement”. In these commercials, all of the “episodes” show the women trying to get closer to Bob, their eyes opening wide and a seductive smile coming across their face when they hear the news about Bob’s “enhancement”. It also shows other guys looking…disgruntled…with their own selves when compared to Bob. Obviously the message is clear – use their drug and you’ll get more women, and make them happier as well.

Now let’s take a birth control pill commercial for women. It really doesn’t matter which one, they are all pretty much the same. They show a woman who is either having a good time at the pool, or at a dinner with her friends, or opening windows – basically trying to express ‘freedom’. It’s funny because in most, if not all of the commercials, there is no sign of a guy anywhere. An unsuspecting person might think a birth control pill was some kind of “happy drug” for women instead of what the drug is really for – the prevention of babies.

If there was such a thing as birth control pills for men, I’m betting it wouldn’t show scene’s of guys driving a car down the road with the hood down or something, but rather probably guys at a club or something with women all over him. If there was some kind of enhancement drug for women, say for her chest area, I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t show other women being disgruntled or guys wanting to fawn all over her, but rather something about a woman having a deliriously good time baking muffins or picking out new clothes (again, no signs of a man anywhere).

Anyways – I just thought it was funny in the marketing approach that these companies have. Check out the commercials on these things (if your Tivo runs out of room anyways heh) if you want to see what I mean, you can get a good chuckle.