Ads for "Sex Nasal Spray" Banned in the U.K.
British authorities have ordered a company advertising a nasal spray that promises longer-lasting sex to take down 196 billboards. The ads break U.K. law, according to the Guardian, because a medical prescription is required to obtain the spray. Drugs are banned from being advertised in Britain.
The campaign was also the subject of complaints from the public because the ads consisted of a massive headline that said, “WANT LONGER LASTING SEX?” The Advertising Standards Authority received 458 complaints about them from the public.
The company advertising the unnamed spray, the Advanced Medical Institute, had initially resisted calls to remove the boards. The company said:
Due to the unprecedented level of complaints and negative media coverage around our billboards in the UK, and because our focus is on helping men with premature ejaculation and erectile disfunction, and not on public rows with the ASA, we have instructed that the billboards be removed as soon as possible.
We do believe that our position is legally defensible but we take a common sense approach to these issues and would rather focus on providing the help that can change the lives of the hundreds of thousands of men suffering from these issues, rather than on responding to continued debate through the media.
Jim Edwards, a former managing editor of Adweek, has covered drug marketing at Brandweek for four years, and is a former Knight-Bagehot fellow at Columbia University's business and journalism schools. Follow him on Twitter or send him an email.
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