Flomax and Grey New York take a minute of Super Bowl XLI time to show the fun that guys can have without benign prostatic hyperplasia (and to run through the federally mandated risk disclosures for its treatment).
The creative execution didn't wow Ad Age's reviewer as much as the core sales pitch: "The relief-in-one-week promise will open up a steady stream of sales," he wrote.
Direct-to-consumer pharma ads are often lost among the big-budget, usually funnier Super Bowl ads for other categories, but they're there all the same. In 2007, Flomax wasn't the only drug ad in the game: A couple of quarters earlier, King Pharmaceuticals had run a minute-long spot urging heart-health awareness as an indirect way of encouraging prescriptions for its blood-pressure treatment Altace. Because King's "Heart Attack" didn't mention its drug or make any promises, though, it was spared the recitation of potential side effects.
BRAND: Flomax
YEAR: 2007
AGENCY: Grey
SUPERBOWL: XLI
QUARTER AIRED: Q4