Levitra Continues E.D. Sports Foray With Skins Game Deal

By Terry Lefton, Editor-at-Large, The Sports Business Daily

Levitra To Title Sponsor '03 Skins Game

Levitra, the new erectile dysfunction drug from Bayer and GlaxoSmithKline, has purchased title sponsorship for the Skins Game, to be televised November 29 and 30 on ABC. The deal is Levitra's first golf sponsorship and follows the signing earlier this year of a three-year, $18M rights deal with the NFL. Cialis, a competitor from Eli Lilly expected to gain FDA approval before the end of the year, has already signed some high-profile golf sponsorships including a recent four-year deal with the PGA Tour and separate three-year deal to title sponsor the PGA Tour's Western Open. Levitra's Skins Game deal is an attempt to blunt Cialis' advances in the golf market. The pending approval of Cialis is expected to prompt a spending binge by the makers of Levitra, Cialis and Pfizer's Viagra, generating hundreds of millions in TV ad buys next year. Sources said the Skins Game deal was in the low seven figures and includes 16 spots over the two days of the telecast. The event, which this year will include Annika Sorenstam, Fred Couples, Phil Mickelson and Mark O'Meara, was originally being shopped as a $6M package with the senior and women's versions of the Skins Game.