I know I shouldn't, but I just have to ask. What's with the bath tubs on the Cialis ads? (in case you live in a bubble, Cialis is for "erectile dysfunction," what we used to call impotence).
The original Cialis ads were faux tasteful things (at least compared to the really toe curling "Viva Viagra" ads) that always ended up with the couple holding hands in a natural setting. The impression you got was that when you take Cialis the time is usually right when you are outdoors. Inconvenient. Then at some point it morphed into the couple each in their own bath tubs, as in the pic from their website. the bath tubs are even part of the logo, now.
Please, someone tell me what the bath tub motif is all about. I'm clueless.
Medicine & Health
Comments
When those ads first came out the bathtubs were poised at the top of a hill, implying that the couple was about to start a bathtub sliding race. Maybe the subliminal message was "Get some now, cause it's all downhill from here?"
A hot bath is something that women are more interested in. When the guy is in the bathtub he is meeting the woman on her turf, as befits the "when she's ready" text of the ads. Compare the motifs to Viagra's ads, which are all about driving the race car, throwing the ball through the tire, or even singing in a blues band with the guys. The only woman to appear prominently in a Viagra ad was that wiggly woman who squirmed like a puppy while she told the closeup camera that her man didn't need Viagra, it just made him more exciting. I suspect that ad got pulled because it made us all wonder if we were subsidizing their excitement with our Blue Cross premiums. I heard complaints from older women about Viagra along the same lines -- sex became all about the pill and the flagpole and the women felt they were just bit players.
I'm not including Viagra's "dancing ads" in my analysis, because they were the first, and last of the series. The first ED ads were all about how to talk about sex without mentioning sex. My husband joked that Viagra must be a drug for guys who can't dance because every ad ended with a couple dancing. The latest ad starts with dancing and ends with the couple sneaking away from the dance floor and into an elevator. I suspect that we've broken the taboo, and don't need dancing as a metaphor anymore.
Posted by: Susan Och | January 13, 2009 4:18 PM
Reference to Big Sur and Esalen where they did the 'alternative science' like meditation, relaxation therapy, massage, etc. and etc. in the late sixties?
Boomers needing a boost would probably identify it ....
Posted by: Poppy | January 14, 2009 12:29 AM
Bathtubs- because you can't show naked, mutually aroused adults on the sandy beach on TV, but you can imply they are naked and mutually aroused whilst lounging in soapy tubs on a sandy beach on TV. Tubs, the new toga.
Posted by: Jimmy | January 14, 2009 2:23 AM
I think it is to convey the impression that Cialis is ripe for a slow, romantic build-up to sex and not as much about rushing to the goal. Take your time, relax, have a wonderful evening just "being" with your partner.
It's that 36-hour effectiveness thing.
Reminds me of the joke that Robert Duvall told Sean Penn in Colors.
"There were two bulls on the hill, looking over the pasture of cows. The younger bull, said 'Let's run down this hill and fuck one of these cows.' The older bull turned to the younger one and said, 'No, let's walk down this hill and fuck them all.'"
Since Cialis is presumably for older men, it appeals to the idea of taking it easy and enjoying sex for a longer time. A warm bath is a relaxing setting, with more at hand than merely getting clean.
Plus the couple is nekkid on camera without being exposed.
Posted by: Mike Haubrich, FCD | January 14, 2009 7:45 AM
I'm so glad you asked this, I've always wondered about it... because, separate bathtubs? To me - and maybe I am too young for the demo, though not if the many anecdotes about younger men taking it for fun not need are true - separate bathtubs has a faint suggestion of separate beds. One bathtub, now that would be sexy.
Posted by: maryn | January 14, 2009 9:58 AM
Aside from all the plausible suggestions already provided, it might also be a money-saver. As twin bathtubs become the product's logo, all they have to do is change the backdrop. Still, if I'm going to be assaulted by these ads whenever I watch anything targeting the "old geezer" television demographic, I'd rather see picturesque bathtubs in a variety of appropriately rugged settings (Victoria Falls; Mt. Etna; Devil's Tower) than the ads for "natural male enhancement" like the dreaded "Smiling Bob."
Posted by: Clare | January 14, 2009 11:15 AM
I think Mike has it half-right; the tubs were part of the whole "more time for romance" theme of the first commercial. I think the reason they are now reappearing in the newer commercials is because the advertising agency discovered that people have made and association between the bath tub and the product; the general public may not remember the name Cialis, but they know it's that drug from that commercial with the couple in the two bath tubs.
Posted by: Algerine | January 14, 2009 7:06 PM
Speaking of commercials...there are a ton of them out there, but two of them drive me crazy.
1. Extenz - Male enhancement remedy. Who are these people??
2. Colon Cleanse - Self explanatory.
How anybody can believe this stuff is beyond me. But wasting money on them is even more amazing...
They area both nuts, but the colon cleanse thing really gets me. First the guy looks like he just came in from the street corner selling women into slavery. He scares me. But the claims are just outrageous!
As for the bathtub...I've always wondered the same thing. Seems a little weird. Except perhaps a slow "buildup" verses the quick burst with Viagra.
Posted by: Patch | January 15, 2009 11:15 AM
Cialis gave the guy a 4hr woody, he is takinmg a cold bath to try to bring it down after they both were exhausted from 30 minutes of heavy sexual activity. The lady is in a warm bath of couse trying to sooth the soreness she has from the same activity.
Posted by: Joe Milfseeker | January 28, 2009 8:03 PM
these pharma ads are now in the thousands, in 2002 in the hundreds, the cost for drugs has risen dramatically. Who else can afford advertising? Write the FDA and tell them these people need brakes put on them. Ads are misleading and create a climate of fear that drives people to pressure their health providers and purchase these "necessary" drugs.
Posted by: Candyce Conley | March 28, 2009 11:13 AM
The bathtubs are not an issue for me but erectile dysfunction advertising is. I am speaking of placing ads for Viagra and Cialis on t.v. at times when young children are watching. They just pop up and you do not have time to prepare for them, (LIKE TURN THE TV OFF). Naturally, the kids are going to ask questions then. I just think pills for sexual dysfunctions should not be advertised at all, much less on prime times. See your Doctor please! Geesh
Posted by: Lyn | March 28, 2009 11:55 AM
I always wonder how they fill the tubs with water. Many of the men who need cialis have underlying medical conditions such as diabetes, heart disease and high blood pressure...to name a few ...and are on medications which further deplete their sexual arousal. By the time they have lugged the water to the two tubs up the hill or down on the shore, erectile dysfunction will probably be the least of their problems. A little nitroglycerin, please. Ah, but wait...no nitrates with cialis.
Posted by: Sarah Willis | March 28, 2009 7:13 PM
I have to agree with Lyn about putting those type of commercials on TV where the kids can see them. But, I think that goes for some of the other, non-ED drugs advertised on TV also. I'll never forget the day my then-10-year-old son came to me as he was watching TV, wanting to know what genital herpes were, because "the guy on the commercial said he had them, but his girlfriend didn't, and they were going to keep it that way with that medicine!!"
Posted by: Sheila | March 29, 2009 12:41 AM
I have wondered about the bathtubs. I think at has to be subliminal. I think the idea is to create negative space between the tubs and under the tubs. This is more apparent in the online "roll over" ads, and at the Cailis web site. The negative space creates the shape of a penis and two testicles.
Posted by: John | March 29, 2009 8:46 AM
I have had it......I will create my OWN Cialis commercial. I will hire 2 big-breasted pole dancers from the local strip club and we will start filming at my hot tub....then we will place this "correct" commercial on the youtube and the internets.....by the way, this will be a foursome....Mr. Bubble will be there too....
Posted by: Hot Tub Ted | March 29, 2009 2:40 PM
This has always bothered me. The only explanation I can come up with is that the stuff works so well he is just going to drill right THROUGH his tub...
Posted by: BN | April 22, 2009 8:50 PM
Cialis really gets your pipes flowing or plumbing flowing. Or there is so much juice you have to stay in a tub.
Posted by: rskwooley | May 30, 2009 9:22 PM
i have to commend some of you on your imagination. the fact is, these are just the dumbest ads ever. they are senseless, and have no cohesion to the product. if they have to resort to subliminal, then they absolutely don't belong. as for the guy driving the race car and all that crap about having a longer dong, this one really needs to go as well. it will save wal-mart from putting security alarms on products on the shelves.
Posted by: charles taylor | June 7, 2009 1:24 PM
The bathtub motif just makes another useless product more nonsensical. I am part of their demographic, yet I believe that 90% or more of the people who take these "blue pills" have a problem between their ears! Mommy didn't breast feed them long enough, or they've been emasculated by a stronger woman for all of their adult lives!
The idiotic bathtubs, and the use of what was a fairly innocuous Elvis song that I-now-detest makes me wish for some new law that removes those ads from all airwaves!
Yeah .. just what *I* wanted: to sit on top of a hill in some rusty, nasty old bathtub someone dragged from the landfill and watch the sunset! Get real!
Posted by: DJ | June 26, 2009 2:48 PM
I did a search on the Cialis "tub theme" cos my boyfriend was making me crazy wondering about it. I found this blog IMMENSELY amusing-- so thank you all! I read your comments out loud and we giggled a whole lot-- now maybe we should go have sex. . . laughing is SEXY-- with or without a tub!
Posted by: Virginia | July 28, 2009 10:33 PM
Grins from many of the entries here. Trying to make a rational interpretation for an image which makes no sense is futile. Has ANYONE ever done this, or does anyone know anyone who has done this?
The apparent answer to this is that it makes sense TO MAKE NO SENSE. Cialis' debut was relatively late in the marketing of systemic erectile products, yet here we are obsessing over the meaning of its ads. When we ask our physician to prescribe us such a product, which one are we most likely to select by brand-name? Well, we are likely to remember the name of the product which so has captured our attention. It's about profit, market share, MONEY! (Did we ever imagine it otherwise?)
Posted by: John M Davis | August 2, 2009 7:33 AM
The bathtub thing has made me crazy,too.I can only surmize that the pills work so well that both partners must soak their gonads to recuperate.So it's brilliant advertising.Since we have other products that do the same thing,Cialis has differentiated itself by having a weird,yet memorable commercial.Having Separate bathtubs out in the open is beyond explicable.It's not cool nor elite, it's just stupid weird,hence the effectiveness of the ad.Too bad we have to see it so damn many times every single day.(Hey,we get it!) And those rotating fools who recite the BS disclaimer.Geez! If my Johnson dies, I'm burying it not drugging it...
Posted by: Quasimodo | August 9, 2009 7:06 PM
My husband and I also noticed how silly these commercials were and were trying to find out what their point is when we landed ourselves here. THANK YOU for the laughs! My whole thing with these tubs is that they don't really even hint at intimacy! If I didnt know what Cialis was I'd think it was for relaxing. Now if they were to start showing ads where he is climbing into HER tub WITH her... ah then we'd all say, "THATS WHY!!" As for these ads running when kids are around-- time to get over our hangups! If they're old enough to have questions or show interest they're old enough to know! Sex is a natural part of life! Well.. unless you're stuck in separate bathtubs wondering how you're going to make it work across the great divide!
Posted by: Elizabeth | August 16, 2009 10:56 AM
Thank you all for the amusement. I have been asking my friends and none of us know what the two tubs are supposed to mean. I too was thinking maybe it's two scrotums - but you have all brought to light the other possibilities that I had previously missed.
The first ones of them in tubs facing the ocean were dumb then they went into a back yard in their side-by-side tubs. I only wondered about the bug bites they were going to get from that romantic interlude.
While I actually laugh at Smiling Santa Bob and the short haired lady who's first in line, I do think they should not be on tv during children's watching hours. They don't need to see this yet. Let them have their childhood uninterrupted with future fears....
Posted by: Laura | August 17, 2009 10:38 AM
I think the tubs in the commercials are meant to do exactly what it has done here in the site. The product name has been mentioned over 20 times. Everytime you see the commercial you take notice and remember the product no matter haw stupid it is. Are you old enough to remember the Parks Sausage radio commercial? Everyone hated hearing that kid calling for "More Parks Sausages Mom", but in the supermarket you noticed the Parks Sausage.
Great marketing Cialis.
Posted by: Chet | August 18, 2009 9:51 AM
I know someone who worked in marketing at Eli Lilly when those ads came out, and he explained it to me. Mike (#4) has it exactly right: it's intended to show that there's no hurry; they have all weekend.
Posted by: Stan | September 1, 2009 12:30 AM
Stan (#26 above) would somewhat tell the story but, does this seem to say that we are back in the 50's and the two parties can't be in the same bathtub nekked? Even Lucy and Desi had to occupy single beds even though they were married in real life and even when Lucy was pregnant with Desi, Jr. Thus, I can't figure out the 2 bathtubs, but I think #4 and #26 have shown some light on a solution to my quandry.
Posted by: Merr | September 15, 2009 8:47 PM
Each bathtub is representative of a testicle. When the tubs are full, the couple is together enjoying each others company in a natural setting (like perfect lovemaking).
When the tubs are empty (maybe a two-fer that doesn't last four hours)- the product is no longer necessary.
Then it's time to play golf (or take a nap).
Posted by: vegas | September 18, 2009 3:01 AM
I always thought that they had to do an ice-bath after Indian burns from a night of continuous, drug-induced debauchery.
Posted by: patrick | September 21, 2009 7:32 AM
I don't know what the tubs are for either but when Cialis used to sponsor The Western Open Golf Tournament I cheered for Woody Austin to win it.
Posted by: rphpat | October 1, 2009 6:21 PM
Ya know, if you get 4 hour morning wood in the late afternoom or evening, tell your wife to have her best friend come by. Then you can have 3 bathtubs to ponder!
Len
Posted by: Lenny | October 25, 2009 9:43 PM
There's a lot going on with the bathtubs. First, negative space between them suggest male genitalia. The tubs themselves look to me to be female underwear, with the penis between the legs. The tubs' legs suggest garter belt attachments. The tubs convey the ideas of nudity and wetness, and two beds. Why two? Because the couple isn't married to each other. Anyway, that's my take. There may well be other stuff going on, as well.
Posted by: Wendell Eaton | November 17, 2009 9:36 PM
Here's another thought. Why is this drug called Cialis? Think about it. See Alice. Cialis.
Posted by: Wendell Eaton | November 17, 2009 9:55 PM
The ad it just dumb. Maybe the ad agency is related to the drug company. Why else would you use such a stupid ad. If you have ED, I don't think you would purchase Cialis because of two bathtubs. I will make one point, we have all seen the comercial and remember it.
Posted by: kathy hapgood | November 20, 2009 10:40 PM