"Enlarge Your Pipe Today!"

    Since the appearance of widely dispersed advertising, there have been claims of outrageous proportions that created much controversy and the need for regulations regarding the validity of these claims. Nevertheless, today there remain advertisements that make people stop and question if trust should be placed into the creators of the product which is being proposed. The product LONGitude is expressed as an �herbal science breakthrough� by its creators, CP Nutritionals. This so called breakthrough, concerns that of a revolutionary pill that will increase the size of the male sexual organ, otherwise known as the penis, by up to three inches. Such a claim of course would catch the eye of every man that happened to flip to this particular advertisement because, as we all know for Durex Condoms survey, �67% of women say they�re unhappy with their lover�s penis size.� Not expressed in the ad is the fact that the process is irreversible. Should the patient become unhappy with the results a money back guarantee is the only warranty for such a product. Furthermore, and perhaps the most important aspect of this argument, is that the human body is incapable of dissolving most dietary supplements that are on the market today, such as this product. Advertisements, like this one, do not reveal all of the truths behind their products, creating an inability for the consumer to make an effective decision.
     This particular advertisement for LONGitude can be found in the October 2001 issue of Maxim. The ad itself consists entirely of three black and white pages. Bold, large type at the top right-hand corner of the first page poses the question: �What do women secretly say behind their lover�s back?� Directly to the left of this appears a beautiful woman, with a come-hither stare, and a captivating look upon her face. A small box below this supplies the reader with the answer to the question: Muscles, money, and looks help, but women want a �bigger� man. Following this, one can determine that the ad refers to a product that proposes the capability of increasing the size of a man�s penis. The advertisement is put forth in the form of a letter to �fellow men� and communicates the details as to the claims of this product. By using this medium it allows the producer to relate to men in a way few other advertisements can. The writer, just a normal guy like anyone else, uses LONGitude himself, and along with this reassurance, be puts the reader at ease with his explanation of the product�s capabilities and positive out comes. Located at various points around this layout there are boxes highlighting the main points of the ad. No color is used perhaps because the advertiser believes the issue of the ad will be enough to capture the reader�s interest; or perhaps they are too cheap to spring for color. Other drug advertisements use a main layout of color, followed by pages of factual information, where as this ad using only the factual part. Perhaps this ad is attempting to mimic the integrity of other such advertisements. Aside form all this, the words �risk-free� and �no side-effects� are plastered all over the ad. Why would all these sayings be used so haphazardly if the producer was not relying on placing the reader at ease and bringing them in, as opposed to the reader coming to them based on their past credibility? The bottom line is that CP Mutritionals, the creator of LONGitude, has no credibility because they work in a field that not many know of, the field of dietary supplements.
     CP Nutritionals is a company that, when viewed from the outside, has good intentions for their customers. They claim that they are �a company determined to make a difference,� and that they work closely with physicians, and the like, attempting to discover new and grand developments in nutrition and health technologies. This company certainly sounds as if they are out to do good for society as a whole. Or does it? CP Nutritionals deals with only products falling into the category of dietary supplements. According to the Food and Drug Administration, dietary supplements come in the form of pills, capsules, powders, liquids, and other various mediums and provide essential nutrients, such as a vitamin, an essential mineral, a protein, an herb, or similar nutritional substance. Well, actually the fact is that dietary supplements are not tested by any government or private agency, including the Food and Drug Administration. However, a few experimenters have run their own dissolution experiments on these substances and have come to the conclusion that only a small percentage of dietary supplements are actually dissolved in the human body in the small amount of time that they reside in the stomach. Why would a company with good intentions vend a product to the people and not know if their product is effective or not? CP Nutritionals knows that their product has the potential for being effectual, but that its effectiveness is ended with the consumers own flaw, the human body. Even though in the ad, the inadequacy of the human body is not expressed, the shortcomings of men are vividly displayed throughout.
     The ad gives off the feeling that if men are average then they are inadequate. This, of course, could not be further from the truth, but the ad uses this method to play on the fears of the reader. If men are led to believe that they cannot satisfy a member of the opposite sex, men become angry, and after this �realization� is put forth, anything would be done to reverse this curse that has been placed upon them. The constant repetition in the ad that women will want to engage in sexual relations with men if they are greater endowed then the normal man gives men a feeling of the expectance of pleasure. The amount of pleasure that a man receives has a direct correlation to a man�s idea of his self worth and esteem. The ad directly targets this self-esteem by saying, �a bigger penis makes you feel more confident.� Hell, now I want to buy some if it is true that it has the magical capabilities of cracking into my emotions and making me gain a greater internal locus of control. Who wouldn�t? Smart people, that�s who. Just look at the ad from a woman�s point of view: Hmm, the average woman�s vaginal canal is only five inches deep�that means that even average (six inches) is too big. So, why would I want a man with a nine inch member? Oh right! I wouldn�t.
     The factor that catches most people�s eyes, and soon thereafter their belief, is the existence of facts and statistics in an advertisement. The ad gives numbers regarding the size of the expected growth of one�s penis, the time that this growth should take, and other such information, like the amount of women who would wish this great gain upon their men. Basically, nowadays people believe in numbers. If someone advertised a product that claimed to make people fly, and gave relevant information about the airspeed, velocity, and altitude that one should expect, then believe it or not, someone out there would deem it truthful. CP Nutritionals does a deceptively good job of supplying the right statistics that people want to see. They forgot one thing however, the truth, but after visiting LONGitude�s graciously supplied website, one discovers what everyone fears in an advertisement�s claim: RESULTS ARE NOT TYPICAL.
     When an advertisement, such as this one, comes forward with an outrageous declaration, people have to wonder about it. This ad for LONGitude does a tremendous job of hiding the reality from the public, but its very own extremity sets it up for a fall. The claim that a man�s penis can be enlarged with a simple pill is ridiculous. If this were true then there would be drugs for every other type of body part; from biceps to triceps, from six packs to big racks, there would be no need to exercise these body parts, they would merely grow with no assistance at all, just like the penis under the use of LONGitude. In this day and age the average consumer will believe anything, but a simple cruise on the internet will give rise to the reality of the advertiser�s assertion. This answer is so simple that most people would not look for it, but the more unfamiliar such a product like dietary supplements is to the world, the harder it is to find the answer. Public knowledge must be achieved concerning the pharmaceutical world; otherwise people are wasting hundreds of dollars a month on worthless medication. When people do not know the truth, then lies are misrepresented as the truth itself. With the deception that is constantly occurring in our society, a stand must be taken on the front that is the foreground of this movement. Americans are hit with hundreds of advertisements per day and this great mass of trickery creates for people a feeling of hopelessness. Advertisements, which are disregarded everyday as mere distractions, have the potential to alter the way of life and thought patterns of everyone, simply because of those idyllic words accepted by millions: ignorance is bliss.

                                                              Works Cited:

CP Nutritionals Direct. <http://www.cpnutritionals.com>.

LONGitude Capsules. <http://www.longitudecapsules.com>.

FDA Backgrounder, June 15, 1993. p2.