To whisper into the millennial’s heart, as the 2017 playbook says, look first to his houseplant. Millennials: They love plants!

So when Hims, a new company dedicated to marketing and selling attractively branded wellness products, announced its debut earlier this month, one teaser image, propagated online, was a keeled-over, flaccid cactus, an unsucculent succulent.

A marketing campaign photo by Hims. Credit Brayden Olson

“The end of womp womp is coming,” the tag line read. “Very, very soon.”

Hims, you see, addresses itself to a delicate, often undiscussable problem facing the hims of the world, even the young ones: erectile dysfunction.

Psst, bro: Need a little help in the Little Him department? Smash that like!

Hims is one of a handful of new entrants to the men’s wellness category that take aim at a segment of customers often overlooked by the larger players: men over 20 and under 55. The solutions offered by Hims and a fellow online service, Roman, are not new, but the tone and method of the marketing is.

Until now, the most famous Viagra pitchman — even if his late-1990s adhas largely been scrubbed from the internet — was Senator Bob Dole, then in his 70s. “For a really long time,” said Andrew Dudum, 29, the founder and chief executive of Hims, “you’d think of an affluent white male walking on the beach in white linen pants. He’s 65, he’s graying, and he’s got his still beautiful wife right by his side.”

Men under 65 may suffer from all kinds of things. The problem isn’t only erectile dysfunction, for which Hims offers sildenafil (the generic name of Viagra, $20 per month); there’s also the sensitive issue of hair loss, for which Hims offers finasteride (the generic form of Propecia, $28.50 per month).

Both are pharmaceutical drugs requiring prescriptions, which Hims offers via its staff of five staff physicians making diagnoses via online consultation, whose fees are included in the service’s prices. Prescriptions can be filled through Hims’ own network of pharmacy partners, or sent to patients’ current pharmacies for pickup. (Hims, which does not accept insurance, serves 18 states in the U.S.)

Source: NY Times
“Finally Putting Some Fun in Erectile Dysfunction” by:MATTHEW SCHNEIER