Monday, June 03, 2002
Reds radio no place for sex ad
What's better than Marty and Joe on Reds radio? How about Marty and Joe without the commercial promising male sex organ enhancement?
Every Reds radio broadcast since spring training has carried commercials for Enzyte, a drug promising “natural male enhancement” in the same way that “millions of women have used breast enhancement supplements as a genuine, effective way to increase their bust size.”
Is that really what the Reds want young baseball fans to hear?
You'd think they want kids to hear about Adam Dunn's home runs — not how to increase the size of their private parts.
When I'm in the car with my 9-year-old son, I quickly punch up another station as the Enzyte commercials come on. But I can't protect his innocent ears when he goes to bed listening to Marty Brennaman and Joe Nuxhall announce Reds games.
Game's not over
Cincinnati Reds officials tell me they have no control of the advertisement. The Enzyte commercials were sold by Reds' flagship station WLW-AM.
John Allen, Reds chief operating officer, assures me that fans will never see Enzyte billboards on the outfield wall, or advertisements for the product in the team yearbook or scorecard.
And we won't hear Mr. Nuxhall sign off after a game by saying “This is the Old Left-hander, rounding third and headed for natural male enhancement.”
If the ball club had its way, the advertisement would have been pulled in April. Mr. Allen asked WLW-AM to drop the spot, but the station refused.
Other offended listeners have complained, too.
“We've gotten a few calls, but not a tremendous amount,” says Bill Reinberger, WLW-AM sales director.
Station managers “definitely had concerns” about accepting the sponsor, he says. But Enzyte, marketed by Lifekey Healthcare in Blue Ash, agreed to rewrite the advertisement that had aired last winter during the Reds Hot Stove League call-in show.
Enzyte eliminated explicit language promising “added size, firmness and strength.” Instead the commercial talks about “tissue cell advancement” that is “clinically tested and doctor approved.”
“We thought it was more clinical, more medical in nature,” Mr. Reinberger says.
Danger zone
Another factor in accepting Enzyte for Reds games was Major League Baseball's multimillion-dollar deal with Viagra, the drug that restores and enhances sexual performance. Viagra commercials appear on Reds games on Fox Sports Net, and on rotating billboards behind home plate on some baseball telecasts on cable.
An Enzyte spokesman says the company has tried to be careful placing advertisements. The reworked radio spot “is very benign. We've pulled back,” says Chip Clarke, Enzyte marketing vice president.
“We're very sensitive. For example, we don't buy any morning drive,” Mr. Clarke says.
But what are the chances kids in a noisy car or school bus might hear an Enzyte spot — compared with listening intently to a Reds game?
Enzyte sponsors the Reds to reach men, he says. It also has TV commercials featuring “Smiling Bob” on ESPN, ESPN2 and Fox Sports Net.
WKRC-TV, a sister Clear Channel company to WLW-AM, rejected the Enzyte TV commercial during the NCAA basketball tournament in March. Chris Sehring, Channel 12 vice president and general manager, says he thought it was inappropriate for the tournament's family audience.
“It could get a lot of parents upset,” Mr. Sehring says. Had Enzyte wanted to buy a late-night time slot to introduce the commercial, the station would not have been concerned, he says.
“The NCAA was too big of a platform right off the bat,” he says. “I don't like to be the arbiter of taste, but we try to cultivate a family image.”
If there's any good news in all of this, it's that Enzyte bought only a half-season of Reds radio. “We haven't decided if we're going to do more,” he says.
To folks at WLW-AM, which promotes itself as “the Big One,” talking about breast augmentation and male enhancement on the public airwaves — your airwaves, not theirs — may be as American as baseball and apple pie.
But that's not the world in which I want to raise my 9-year-old son. I want him to ask me about a player's batting average, or a pitcher's earned run average. I want him to ask me about Ken Griffey Jr.'s natural talent for baseball, and not have to explain to a second-grader the term “natural male enhancement.”
Radio can be a dangerous place. I know that because Mr. Brennaman says so in a WLW-AM promotion for his baseball broadcasts.
“Radio is a dangerous, dangerous place ... (so encourage) your young ones to listen to wholesome radio — like the Reds, with me and Joe,” he says.
As much as I love baseball, and the Reds, I can't call Reds radio “wholesome” as long as the games are sponsored by a product promising a bigger erection.
Enzyte: This one does not belong on the Reds.
John Kiesewetter covers radio and TV for the Enquirer. E-mail jkiesewetter@enquirer.com. Past columns at Enquirer.com/columns/kiese
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KIESEWETTER: Reds radio no place for sex ad
