SAN FRANCISCO — When it comes to the bedroom, Viagra, Cialis and Levitra are all household words, thanks to TV, radio and Internet ads broadcasting information about erectile dysfunction around the clock, on all kinds of programming — even the Super Bowl. So Rachel Braun Scherl thought it would be a snap to market Zestra Essential Arousal Oils, a “botanical aphrodisiac” developed by the company she co-founded, Semprae Laboratories Inc. of Saddlebrook, N.J. Research had shown that tens of millions of American women had sexual difficulty and no products to remedy it.
Scherl, 45, a Stanford University business school graduate and married mother of two, and company co-founder Mary Jaensch, 58, a married mother of three, thought they had an answer for this unmet need, along with the cash to pay for ads on TV.
In an apparent double standard, many networks and some websites have declined the company’s ads. A few will air them during the day, and others only after midnight. There is no nudity, sex or mention of body parts, unlike ads for men’s products referring to “erections lasting more than four hours.”
“The most frequent answer we get is, ‘We don’t advertise your category,’ “ Scherl said. “To which we say, ‘What is the category? Because if it’s sexual enjoyment, you clearly cover that category. If it’s female enjoyment, you clearly don’t.’ And when you ask for information as to what we would need to change so they would clear the ad for broadcast, they give you very little direction. … And yet they have no problem showing ads for Viagra and other men’s drugs. Why?”
Zestra’s ads feature women of various ethnicities who appear to be in their 40s and 50s talking to the camera about how sex “doesn’t feel the way it used to” before they had children and that their bodies “don’t react” as they did when they were younger. Zestra’s website states that the oil (classified as a cosmetic) works by “heightening sensitivity to touch.” The website contains endorsements by three medical doctors and the founder of a sexual health institute, and cites two clinical trials proving its effectiveness.
The oil has been featured on TV shows such as “Rachael Ray,” “The Tyra Banks Show,” “Dr. Oz” and ABC’s “Nightline,” even though the network would allow a Zestra ad only during the late-night “Jimmy Kimmel” show, Scherl said.
A spokeswoman for Oxygen network, which accepted the ad from midnight to 4 a.m. and during “Bad Girls Club” and “Snapped,” declined to specify what was objectionable about the ad during other daytime programming, citing client confidentiality.
Facebook initially ran an ad, but took it down and declined to run it again and WebMD.com declined to run ads, said Scherl.
Laura Grindstaff, an associate professor of sociology at the University of California, Davis, said many cultures are uncomfortable with the idea of female sexuality outside reproduction and motherhood.
“When you see naked women bounding around in any music video or open a magazine and see ads for cars or cosmetics, half-naked women are everywhere,” Grindstaff said. “That is not women’s sexuality. What you see is completely bound up and constructed by male ideas of what women’s sexuality ought to be.
“An ad like Zestra’s, with no men in it, about women’s pleasure for the sake of pleasure, is threatening, I guess. What other explanation could there be?”
Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.
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