Talk about slightly unfortunate timing.  Just one day after the New York Times has an article about how pharma companies go about recruiting cheerleaders as detail babes reps, Bayer announces that it’s hiring the ex-Ms Mick Jagger, and very leggy supermodel, Jerry Hall as a "Global Ambassador for its Erectile Dysfunction Campaign".  In case you’re a little innocent about cheerleaders’ place in American culture, guess what a Google search for "Cheerleaders turns up. (Don’t hit the "I’m feeling lucky" button if you’re at work!).

Jerry is of course well known for recounting that "my mother told me that men want a cook in the kitchen, a maid in the house and a whore in the bedroom. I told her that I’d take care of the bedroom part and hire the other two".

Somehow one gets the impression that the grown-ups have left Beavis and Butthead in charge down in the marketing department, which wouldn’t matter if it wasn’t for that teeny bit of criticism that pharma companies have been facing over their DTC and physician-based marketing activities.