NFL broadcasts are definitely going to better in 2017 than they have been in a long time. How do I know this with the season still more than two months away? Because the endless ads for boner pills will no longer be lurking at every commercial break encouraging you to ask your doctor how you, dear older man, can get better at throwing a football through a tire or emasculating those of us who don’t have twin bathtubs in the backyard.
What have we done to deserve such a reprieve from some of the most obnoxious advertising campaigns of the last 20 years? Nothing. Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer is losing its patent on Viagra, according to Ad Age. That opens the door for other drug manufacturers to make generics.
Along with Lilly, the maker of Cialis, boner pills helped keep the NFL’s broadcaster’s bottom lines rock solid with nearly $50 million in advertising dollars last year.
However, experts do not foresee ad spending for NFL games to soften. Drug companies have an array of other products they believe pro football fans will be interested in asking their doctors about on the next office visit.
So that’s it. From now on the only dirty old men having fun on TV during an NFL broadcast will be in the owners booth or on the sidelines wearing a headset. But at least, we’ll always have Bill Belichick’s Nantucket photoshoot to remind us.
— Harry Lyles Jr. (@harrylylesjr) June 28, 2017
*Please note, if your interest in ad spending for NFL broadcasts last longer than four hours, see a doctor.