This is one instance in which cooperation between corporate and government resulted in facilitating a campaign using public infrastructure (roads and speed bumps) to promote health objectives.

Some day, I dream, Halifax will have the same attitude towards innovation and creative endeavors requiring government/public involvement and support.

Click image below to enlarge.

Seen on [AdBlogArabia]

Did anyone see the new TV spots for Viagra, featuring a couple of people talking gibberish with the word ‘Viagra’ intermittently inserted into their conversation? The ads are currently playing in Canada only, but Alex Brenson of the NY Times caught one and commented on it.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/v/ExQKZKnk6rA]

The made up language is more than simply a creative brainstorm by the Toronto Agency ‘Taxi‘. In Canada and the US, pharmaceutical companies can avoid mentioning side effects in their advertisements as long as the commercial has no mention of what the drug actually does. These ads are referred to as ‘Reminder ads’. Pfizer has been able to get around this issue with a number of campaigns that rely on the fact that users of Viagra already know what it’s for, and so Pfizer can get around the advertising rules by making up a gibberish language that insinuates what the two mid-aged characters are speaking of, but not really say it out loud.

Similar constraints affect the marketing of Viagra in the Middle East, albeit largely cultural. Take a look at the campaign below from JWT‘s Kuwait office. (Click the image below to enlarge).