Ah, the Good Old Days

Remember back in the good old days when you could turn on a television and not have to hear the words "erectile dysfunction"? My husband and I decided to take the kids out today for a Sunday morning brunch at a nearby kosher Dunkin Donuts. There was a large flatscreen television hanging on the wall and we got stuck at the table right beneath it. As we were all happily munching on our egg and cheese sandwiches, a commercial came on advertising Cialis, a medicine for erectile dysfunction. My four year old and two year old daughters thankfully did not pick up on the many times the words erection, erectile and sex were mentioned in the commercial, but my husband and I could not believe our ears.

I really don't get it. I don't get why the Cialis has advertise on television in the first place. In the good old days, you would just get a drug prescribed to you by your doctor because you needed it and not because you saw it on tv and had to have it. But even if they did advertise on television - couldn't it be done in a more discreet way? And couldn't the commercial be on late at night when children are sleeping?

My husband and I do as much as we can to shelter our little girls. We don't have a television, we only let them watch selected videos, but do we now have to start screening which stores or restaurants we frequent? (We're already kosher!) Isn't a child entitled to grow up and not have to wonder what an erection is for at least a little while?

I'd like to know how the brilliant people at Cialis would suggest answering a young child who saw their commercial and wanted to know what erectile dysfunction is - maybe they can include those instructions on the box!

Comments

[spudmom]

Your angst is similar to what we experienced here when a local Victoria's Secret began the nearly-nude model campaign at our local mall. The store was next to where Santa sets up shop, and parents waiting in line with their kiddies had to shield them from images of women feigning extasy clad only in thongs. Despite many letters to the editor and a small boycott, the store and larger than life posters are still there; but the children's rides have moved to another part of the mall.
As for the ED and 'male enhancement' ads, I prefer the Enzite approach of subtlety, so at least my younger children don't understand what the subject matter is. But, we usually record anything we watch just so we can skip commercials.

[Liz Neville]

We do have two TVs in our house, with limited channels as we don't want to pay for all the junk cable lumps in with the "family package". But we generally stick to a few shows (and they are fewer and fewer all the time) that we can enjoy together with the kids, or movies from Netflix. The commercials even on the "family" shows at what used to be called the "family" hour are appalling and my husband is a whiz at flipping channels to avoid the embarrassing stuff. But just like the billboards full of bare behinds that one of our bloggers discussed recently, there seems to be no dignity any more in the pursuit of sales through ads. I think it's pathetic, and it turns me off more products than it will ever sell me.

[k.]

I may be in the minority here, but I'm more horrified that Dunkin Donuts counts as "brunch" than I am by ED ads on TV. When I was growing up "brunch" was a special time where my mom would invite friends and family over for waffles around the breakfast table, or we'd go out some place "fancy" (and all dressed up in our Sunday best) with my grandmother. DD is not marketing themselves as a "family oriented" establishment (at least the one down the street from us wasn't), they offered "20 minute seating for customers only" and much preferred that people take their coffee and go. Also, at most places you can politely ask the people behind the counter to change the channel and they'll usually oblige. If all else fails, someone can drive to DD early and pick up some food and bring it home, still special, still DD, just no worried about ED. And if you really want to take them out for brunch there are plenty of nicer, more family-orinented places you can go.

[Gila]

K. you are right except that kosher Duncans do market themselves more as family-oriented because they have lots of religious Jewish customers, who bring in a lot of children. Kosher Duncan Donuts are different in a few ways actually from ones that don't advertise kosher certification.

Also Jews celebrate their sabbath and their dress up time on Saturday, remember, so wanting to go out for a casual bite with the family does not indicate necessarily that they're opposed to the dress up or brunch/family/having guests concept. That just happens on a different day for them.

Yikes are we really telling people who don't want to hear about erections all the time that they have to stay home?

[Ken]

Which is the one that uses "Bob the Tetanus Boy" as a shill?

Yikes are we really telling people who don't want to hear about erections all the time that they have to stay home? -- Gila

Guessed it in one.

[k.]

Gia, I was not implying they should all stay home, just that if the TV is offensive take charge, ask to change the channel, or find somewhere that doesn't have a TV blasting in the back ground (some of those places *do* exist).

And if the kosher DD is really all that family friendly, I'm sure they'll understand being upset about ED commercials over breakfast.

[Emily]

Hmm, I don't have a problem with ED TV commercials in the proper context- but the concept of there being a proper context for sexual-related matters does seem to have gone out the window. During adult timeslots and with the proper tone I think it's fine. There's no reason really that they need to be on at hours when children are watching TV, I mean I would think that was just sensible. You could write to the station and let them know that. There was a TV commercial that soccer player Pele did a few years ago that was quite well-done. You knew what it was about if you needed to know what it was about, so to speak.

There are huge ED billboards around my city I could do without seeing, all with stupid, punny slogans. The radio ads are even worse, very salacious and offputting.

[Christine]

Firstly, I am rather breathless that someone could be so berated for their choice of "brunch" locations. In a society where most families spend very little time together and rarely worship together, the locale of brunch seems hardly as important as the choice to spend time together.

Secondly, the heart of the issue seems to be whether ED really needs to be a subject of public discourse. As a medical problem, the conversation really belongs in the exam room. When my family eats dinner together in our kitchen, we like to listen to a baseball game over the local radio station. I really don't need to hear two ads for sexually transmitted diseases over my pasta course at 7:30 in the evening, yet this is often the case. Yes, I can call the radio station. Yes, I can turn the radio off. But I can also call upon my peers to express outrage that what is properly private has become inappropriately public. It seems that public service messages (and many drug ads) could be more properly termed "indecent exposures".

[Bethany]

I don't understand drug companies constant need for advertising on television anyway. There is also the commercial for an STD medication that is also unnecessarily descriptive. It goes something like, "I have genital herpes but my girlfriend doesn't..."

The most ironic part of these drug commercials is all of the disclaimers they are required to give at the end!

[Anna S]

I wonder if the commenter who is appalled about choosing DD as a Sunday brunch location is aware of the fact that Jews usually have their quiet family time on Saturdays and not Sundays :)

Back to the original topic: the commercials we see on TV are appalling even to me, and I'm 22! I'm a bit concerned about the time when I (hopefully) become a mother and embark on the nearly impossible mission of sheltering my children from the inappropriate content we are showered with.

To think that (as a teen) I used to be bothered by ads for Tampax and Massengil!

[Dusty Brahlek]

I remember talking about how sad it was that as kids were were told by D.A.R.E. to say NO to drugs; however, now we have to say NO to illegal drugs and yes to the 10 Million prescription drugs!

When can we start saying no to the legal ones?

[Elizabeth]

I find it disturbing that commercials for anti-depressants are being aired on TV. I'm not at all against anti-depressants, mind you-- I've seen great results for people who really need them. But one of the commercials says "... if you experience sadness, etc. for more than two weeks..." Even the formerly recommended six weeks is a stretch! My little brother experienced depression for longer than that after the girl he loved dumped him! Let me reiterate that I think anti-depressants can be and are very helpful, but they're way too overprescribed. For more info, read a book called "Listening to Prozac" (I've forgotten the author's name, sorry! :)

[Robert Lane]

I wish to add Modestly Yours and Modesty Zone to our website.I hope many Irish youth can be become more aware of these issues.Our faith based group is aimed at 16-36 age group from all walks of life.These issues directly effect young people.
God Bless,
Robert,
Galway,Ireland

[TeeJay]

I might get blasted for this and I might not but here goes..........
As far as the ED or other commercials for STDs and the like go, I find them mildly humorous. Yes, I said funny. In a recent conversation with my mom (I'm 32 by the way) I told her how funny I thought the ED commercials were as I knew of no man that would openly discuss a problem like that in the first place.
As to small children being exposed to the ads, my feelings on that are mixed. On one hand I say, no big deal but on the other I feel that every parent should be able to control when and how the broach certain topics with their children. My no big deal side comes from the fact that my parents discussed those "sensitive" topics with us (I'm one of 3 girls) at an early age. They decided that they wanted us to hear fact, not fiction and that if we heard things from them that we would not be blindsided by "playground fiction". But again, parents need to make these decisions for themselves.

[Mark La Roi]

Those commercials (along with the health ads for...stuff that should be private) are one of the things that makes watching tv tough. In our area our local news channel runs a plastic surgery infomercial EVERY SUNDAY MORNING in which breasts are clearly shown in before and after pictures!

We (I work at a talk radio station) tried to get the station manager to defend airing this on Sunday morning on a channel nobody would figure they'd have to guard against and his defense was "they run disclaimers".

Ugh. Let's hear it for reading books.

[Grace]

I'm a "no TV" mom, and we rarely eat out because kosher options are limited in our area.

I had no idea that DD was putting televisions in their dining areas. What are they trying to be, a sports bar? G-d forbid a family actually have to carry on a conversation without the aid of the idiot box to help them out.

Nevermind the ads (which are bad enough), but why do people feel the need to put TVs everywhere?

[Elaine]

^.|.^

[Brittany]

very interesting and informative

[Myles]

Thank you.