Viva Viagra No More

Mommy, what's E.D.?

Few commercials are as cringeworthy as the "Viva Viagra" ads in which an over-50 guy beckons a lady friend to mount his Honda American Classic. And the Cialis spots featuring a woman and a man holding hands while incongruously sitting in two separate bathtubs? Please.

Most of us laugh off the clumsy imagery in penis pill commercials. But Rep. Jim Moran (D-Va.) finds his anger uncomfortably aroused. The blushing congressman wants to ban erectile dysfunction commercials from prime time television.

The spots often run during televised sporting events, which means, Moran explains, that "if you're sitting down with your kids and your grandkids, invariably they're going to ask you what is E.D.; why do you have to go to a doctor if it lasts longer than four hours?" To save American parents from this mild, fleeting social discomfort, Moran introduced the "Families for ED Advertising Decency Act," which would instruct the Federal Communications Commission to treat as indecent "any advertisement for a medication for the treatment of erectile dysfunction or for male enhancement." The Food and Drug Administration already has forced several drug companies to pull alluring E.D. commercials because the spots weren't sufficiently alarmist about side effects.

Viagra ads may make the congressman squirm, but they do serve a purpose: More than half of men between the ages of 40 and 70 sometimes find themselves a few parts shy of an Erector Set.