I Want to be Your Viagra Guy

The Hard Sell - firming up the facts (ie. "peaking" at the book that inspired the movie)

Jamie Reidy is to the pharmaceutical business what Jerry Maguire was to professional sports and Frank Abagnale (Catch Me If You Can) was to bank fraud. (Hey Tom, Hey Leo!) He's the guy who's been there, done that, and walked away with the insider stories. You'll say cool guy and at the same time, you'll be shocked by the realities of the world that paid his salary.

The book is a witty expose of an industry that touches nearly everyone in contemporary America. It reveals the questionable practices of drug reps, nurses, and even physicians. Reidy traced his ups and downs as a rep for giant drug manufacturer Pfizer, maker of some of the most widely prescribed and used drugs in existence, including Viagra.

With equal parts self-confidence and self-mockery, he tells it like it is in the drug-selling trenches at local doctors' offices.

Making his rounds, using free food as a way of getting into the doctor's office behind the office staff. He learned which doctors like to be chatted up on sports, Pfizer's stock values, or his dating experiences. He was good at his job. He also learned to be good at faking being good at his job. He learned how to fudge his visit books and sample signatures to make it seem he was making far more calls than he really was. He was really really good at his job.

Most of the book is about becoming and being a drug rep, and just getting by as a slacker. It is only toward the end of the book that baldy blue Viagra ("Vitamin V") tales begin. Being a seller of Viagra came with the unexpected benefit that everyone was curious about his work and proud of the fine job he was doing; one doctor even introducing him to a waiting room full of men as "The Viagra Guy," which he got a standing O.

Now the movie is supposed to have Annie falling for Jake. Here's hoping that HW doesn't reformulate the story so much that it's so generic it doesn't get a rise.