Viagra has "all but vanished from the airwaves, and its absence will be particularly conspicuous during the upcoming NFL season," according to sources cited by Anthony Crupi of AD AGE. Football fans should "notice the dearth of Viagra spots as early as Sept. 7" for the Chiefs-Patriots opener. iSpot.tv data shows that Viagra until recently was the NFL's "top-spending pharmaceutical brand," as it "invested nearly" $31M in NFL inventory last season. Ad sales execs said that the "disappearance of one of the NFL's top 40 highest-spending advertisers is a function of Viagra losing its exclusivity in the face of the impending launch of a generic version of the brand." Network execs said that Cialis will "lose its patent protection halfway through the NFL season, and while it hasn't stopped buying TV time altogether, its upfront presence has been noticeably diminished." One source said, "Cialis hasn't bought any of our NFL inventory in the upfront, and unless they come back in scatter, that's pretty much the end of ED." Crupi noted Viagra and Cialis exiting come as the NFL "faces a softer-than-expected interest from automotive and movie studio clients." Network sales execs "expect that deferred revenue to come roaring back in the fall scatter market." Most recently, Cialis has "bought time" in Fox' coverage of the '17 U.S. Open golf tournament and in select MLB games and NASCAR races. Sales execs "estimate that Cialis last season spent" as much as $22M on NFL inventory. Combined with Viagra's total, that means a "full-on divestment of ED from TV would remove" north of $50M from the NFL ad market (ADAGE.com, 7/7).
