C: April Fools?

Are you ever amazed when you clean out your spam folder?  I do it every morning, and it usually contains ten or a dozen spam items.

But what is amazing to me more is the content.  Oh, sure I get some fairly innocuous pitches.  I don’t open them, but from the subject lines, I can tell some of them are about consolidation of student loans or vacation pitches.  But—far and away—the majority of my spam folder each morning is advertising about cures for erectile dysfunction!  A secondary batch is something that usually refers to itself as “male enhancement.”  Ah, if they only knew…

I don’t know why I am getting these—I have NEVER searched for this stuff, I promise you with crossed heart!  Don’t need the stuff; don’t want it.  But the advertising for me is there.  Lots of it.

You know the bench signs and bill boards that say something like: “Billboard advertising works—you just proved it!”?  Well, does this kind of e-mail advertising work?  Are men out there buying their ED fixes online, perhaps because they are embarrassed to go personally to the doctor?  Who knows?

And is there that much ED out there?  I suppose these are miracle drugs in a way and have their legitimate uses, I know, but I was talking to a friend-lawyer about this.  He is a family-law attorney, very respected around here, and has practiced a bit longer than I, so you know he’s experienced!  Here’s his take on the situation:

“Ya know, back twenty-five years ago we did not see nearly the playing around that we do today, especially among the men in their 50’s.”  (He, like me, rarely goes a week without a new case involving blatant adultery). 

He went on, “It’s viagra…when these old fools get to where their equipment won’t always work, it gives them all kinds of insecurities, and they need to go feel young again with someone other than their wife.  And viagra helps them do it.  Back in the day a good portion of them would never have attempted to fool around with unreliable equipment, but now they can patch it up where they can get on out there…”

Maybe. 

But I know one thing: if you judge by the sheer amount of advertising (just watch for the ads on television), then this is a pretty popular product.  Look at this Cialis ad—it shows on the tube, too.  How romantic: side-by-side bathtubs outside in the middle of nowhere.  You can tell that romance is just minutes away, and the guy is confident.  Why, he’s back to that same “Alpha Male” state he was when he was 30!  He has his Cialis!!

And, like bench advertising, I’m sure the e mail campaign must work.  They sure as heck are trying hard at it, sending it to everyone, even people like me who might be just a tad down on romance at the moment.

I’m just not in the market…C

    PS – Shhhhh.  One of my true confessions—just to you—is that I will actually eat the canned Spam, turned a time or two on a hot skillet.  I like Vienna sausages, too, in the right setting (around a campfire??).  Actually, they evoke happy childhood memories.  I just don’t eat them more than every couple of years and try not to think too hard about them when I do. Happy April Fool’s Day—be on the alert for pranks!