good timing for once.

ah, the superbowl. time for all the greatest ads to be shown. and for companies to spend a hell of a lot of money on some pretty shitty ads too. also recently, it's been where companies spend half their operating costs for the year on lawyers. cnn has a nice discussion of the ads this year, including a gallery of stills, and this little comment:

Eli Lilly and Co. and ICOS took some heat last year when it aired a spot for its Cialis impotency drug that included a warning about
four-hour erections.

all i can say is, eli lilly is damn lucky they got cialis developed so quickly. can you imagine the scene 4 years from now?

scientist: our impotence drug works! here are the results from the studies.
marketing exec: mmhmm...mmhmm...wait a minute. this drug is useless.
scientist: what do you mean, it's useless? it works great! it's the viagra-killer we've been looking for.
marketing exec: your report lists "4-hour erections" as a potential side effect. the FDA requires us to list all side effect in our ads. but the FCC will fine us if we mention erections. this drug is unmarketable. you're fired.