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September 25, 2007

Know Your Audience

Filed under: Arlo and Janis, Bill Bickel, CIDU, comic strips, comics, commercials, erectile dysfunction, feminine hygiene, football, golf, humor, Lifetime Network, sports, television — Cidu Bill @ 2:48 am

And for feminine hygiene products it’s the other way around. His point?

16 Comments »

  1. Hmmm… I’m wondering if it has to do with the titles of the women’s shows he mentions?

    Comment by Keera — September 25, 2007 @ 6:02 am

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  2. Keera, he’s referring to a pair of American cable channels that cater to an almost entirely female audience.

    Comment by Cidu Bill — September 25, 2007 @ 6:14 am

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  3. This could be a comment on how clueless some men can be.

    It could be a play on the stereotype that men are more interested in sex than women.

    Or .. it could be a social commentary that as a rule we view the world through the eyes of the patriarchy. The idea that women might not be interested in erectile dysfunction drugs never enters Arlo’s mind (Nah — it is just a comic)

    It could however be wishful thinking on Arlo’s part that women would be interested in these drugs for their partners.

    Comment by Nicole — September 25, 2007 @ 7:35 am

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  4. My interpretation is that Arlo may just be realizing that while men (the target audience for the ads) are being deluged with ads suggesting that they need more and stronger erections, women (in the advertisers’ opinion) may be just as happy for their male partners to have fewer erections.

    Or perhaps the intention here is to portray Arlo as being sufficiently clueless that he doesn’t realize that Lifetime and Oh! are aimed at female audiences.

    Comment by Morris Keesan — September 25, 2007 @ 8:57 am

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  5. *Or* the intention here is to portray Arlo as being sufficiently clueless that he doesn’t realize that Viagra and Cialis don’t do a thing for women.

    Comment by Charlene — September 25, 2007 @ 9:33 am

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  6. I think it’s one of those “so what’s the deal with…” observational jokes that seem clever until you say or draw them to someone else.

    Comment by DPWally — September 25, 2007 @ 10:56 am

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  7. I do notice a lot of tampon commercials during my socalled “guy” programs. Maybe someone’s trying to tell me something…

    Comment by Rasheed — September 25, 2007 @ 11:01 am

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  8. Maybe he is subtly suggesting that she not make him sit and watch her Lifetime & Oh! shows with her, by pointing out that even the advertisers know that men are not supposed to be watching that stuff.

    Or maybe he LIKES Lifetime more than football and is supporting his preference by showing that even the advertisers expect that men who watch Lifetime are more potent than men who watch football.

    Comment by Pinny — September 25, 2007 @ 12:29 pm

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  9. Given the history of this strip, and its playful attitude toward sex, and general open-mindedness, I interpreted it as Arlo commenting that the drug companies/advertisers don’t think for a second that women would be interested in these drugs (and by extension, sex).

    Comment by Cedar — September 25, 2007 @ 12:38 pm

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  10. Professional team sports are supposed to be the pinnacle of manliness- for both the players and the spectators. Hence, the irony that such a virile group would need help with ED.

    Comment by Blinky the Wonder Wombat — September 25, 2007 @ 3:55 pm

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  11. Reminds me of seeing a very large & overt Viagra ad poster gracing the wall of a men’s room in a hospital maternity ward. Something just seemed oddly out of place about it…

    Comment by ctdonath — September 25, 2007 @ 6:56 pm

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  12. I’m kind of surprised not to see my interpretation in here yet. I thought this was saying that men who are interested in sports and such don’t need help with that type of dysfunction, while if a male is watching the channels geared to females, there is obviously something dysfunctional there.

    Note that I’m not agreeing with him (or projecting my thoughts as far as I know), that’s just what I think the author meant for Arlo to say.

    Comment by bAT L. — September 25, 2007 @ 10:05 pm

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  13. I’m not sure I agree with the premise. I think there have been ED campaigns aimed at women, under the assumption that she’ll push him into seeing a doctor.

    Comment by Alan Hamilton — September 26, 2007 @ 1:52 pm

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  14. The broader issue is being missed here people: a popular comic strip, readable by scores of schoolchildren in newspapers across the country, used the phrase “erectile dysfunction”.

    If that isn’t an Arlo Page candidate I don’t know what is.

    Comment by John DiFool — September 26, 2007 @ 8:49 pm

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  15. John, with ED ads so common now that kids see them while watching Spongebob Squarepants, it’s hard — I mean difficult — to consider them taboo anymore. I mean, we may not personally think these commercials belong in these contexts, but apparently this is not something you have to sneak past the censors.

    Comment by Cidu Bill — September 26, 2007 @ 10:03 pm

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  16. It’s pretty evident from the strip that Arlo is far more sex-mad than Janis, thus the social aspects of the ads match their relationship. I think I read somewhere that at least for older people, men are far more interested in these products than women. As for the “virility” factor, the ads usually feature sports figures or virile looking men, to push the message that real men can have ED also. Not counting the stupid “Bob” ads, of course – I’m talking the FDA approved stuff.

    Comment by Scott — September 27, 2007 @ 5:06 pm

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