Viagra Craze Leads to Shameless Tie-Ins

Entrepreneurs peddling audiotapes, herbal remedies, even sunglasses are trying to make the most of the flimsiest links to Viagra to make a buck off the impotence pill craze.

Las Vegas-based BluBlocker Corp. says its “BluBlocker Viagra” shades help mask the blue tinge Viagra adds to some users’ vision.

“This is crass commercialism,” conceded BluBlocker Chairman Joseph Sugarman. “I just couldn’t resist the opportunity to tie in with that product.”

While some companies might be reaching a little far to take advantage of Viagra, others say they’re merely acknowledging a link consumers have already made.

For Fairfield, N.J.-based Bradley Pharmaceuticals, newly sexually active men represent a new batch of customers for its vaginal lubricant. Bradley’s pitch: “What Viagra does for him, Lubrin does for her.”

Bradley plans to increase Lubrin production dramatically and introduce a new liquid lubricant months ahead of schedule--linking the product to the impotence pill in ads, marketing executive Gene Goldberg said.

Some companies are clearly flouting trademark laws, and Viagra’s maker, Pfizer Inc. of New York, is fighting back.

“We expect that there will be copycats or attempts at coattail marketing,” said Andy McCormick, a spokesman for Pfizer. “When they step over the line in terms of the law, we will step in.”

That’s already happened in three cases, said Nels Lippert, an attorney for Pfizer, including the BluBlocker one.

BluBlocker Chairman Sugarman says he’ll probably give away the 200 pairs of sunglasses already made after Pfizer attorneys threatened a lawsuit “that kind of dampened our enthusiasm.”

Two other companies have run afoul of Pfizer attorneys since Viagra was approved for sale on March 27. Both sell herbal supplements over the Internet and were promoting sexual potency products with extremely similar names: Vaegra and Viagro.

“They’ve capitulated,” Lippert said, after Pfizer filed trademark-infringement suits. Courts in Georgia and New York issued temporary restraining orders barring two outfits, the Institute of Sexual Research and Consumer Protection Services, from selling the products.