When Viagra Connect, the over-the-counter treatment for erectile problems, launched into the UK market two years ago, the focus was on functional communications to spread awareness, but today it’s taking a very different approach – here’s why.

In conversation with WARC, Josh Taylor-Dadds, Strategy Director at VMLY&R, the agency behind the shift, notes how, in areas relating to mental health, equality, LGBTQ+ rights and racism, the UK has in many ways become a more progressive society in recent years.

But “media representations of erectile problems are the same as they were 15 years ago,” he says. Remember the tabloid stories about Hugh Heffner concealing a blue pill in a ring?

While the brand has been successful in appealing to men already seeking help, the problem was reaching those men not looking for treatment yet. “We wanted to help these men take action,” says Taylor-Dadds, “and to do so we had to get a deeper understanding of what was going on in their lives.”

Breaking the taboo started with a rethink of the research approach: this had previously focused on the doctor-patient relationship, based on the assumption that men would be too ashamed to discuss the issue openly.

The new strategy, however, looked at the broader picture of masculinity and sexuality, talking to men, women and couples together.

What emerged, Taylor-Dadds reports, was not a picture of masculinity in crisis but rather masculinity in a state of flux: men are more open, able to show emotion and to seek help – except when it comes to erectile problems, then they shut down again.

Because of what they’ve been told for years, “when problems occur, it feels like a failure of masculinity,” he explains. “And as a consequence, men massively self-blame when erection problems hit.”

But the reality is that erection problems can be caused by countless issues, such as stress, tiredness, diet, depression and diabetes, just to name a few.

Love Story, the new animated campaign, seeks to relieve the pressure men put on themselves and to shift the conversation away from ‘masculinity’ to the causes of their problem, showing the tensions and misconceptions that arise when the topic of erectile dysfunction is avoided between couples.

“Given the size of the task ahead, no one would think that this is a one-and-done campaign,” Taylor-Dadds adds.

For more details, read WARC’s exclusive report: How Viagra Connect’s new campaign is breaking masculinity’s ‘last great taboo’.

Sourced from WARC