The Great Erection Deception: The Stiff Nights Story
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1 x 60 mins
What happens when you cross a Mormon with a vegan and an erectile dysfunction supplement? The answer is the jaw dropping true story of Stiff Nights.
It all starts with a man called Erb Avore. A lifelong outsider and vegan who finds himself... entranced by the world of natural supplements and his lifelong quest is to find nature’s Viagra. Erb is the ideas man but he needs a details man, which he finds in Kelly Harvey. Kelly is Erb’s opposite in every way: a strict Mormon father of four and well respected in the supplement business.
Featuring interviews with key figures involved, this film tells the true story about an unlikely partnership between Erb and Kelly who got together to create what would be marketed as an all-natural sexual supplement that would compete with Viagra.
They called the pill Stiff Nights and it had enormous success selling in shops all over the US and beyond, but the success was short-lived when the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) started looking into them and discovered that Stiff Nights wasn’t all natural and contained sildenafil, an ingredient in Viagra. An investigation was launched - an elaborate sting - and that’s when the action got very hot...
Kelly is arrested in a dawn raid and threatened with 200 years for his part in the scam. He accepts a plea deal and does 3 years in prison. His reputation never recovers. But Erb escapes the US and is never charged. In this film we’ll follow Kelly in his search for his elusive partner who he has never heard from. How did the radical vegan get off and the Mormon father end up in prison? Did Erb throw Kelly under the bus for freedom?
While following the story of Stiff Nights, the film looks at the birth of Viagra (which marks the 25th anniversary of its launch this year) and hears from its lead scientists who developed this infamous little blue pills.
The Great Erection Deception: The Stiff Nights Story also charts the rise of the culture of modern-day ‘over the counter’ sexual supplement pills by talking to users, distributors and sex shops and shed light on what has now become a multi-million-dollar business.
Read More
It all starts with a man called Erb Avore. A lifelong outsider and vegan who finds himself... entranced by the world of natural supplements and his lifelong quest is to find nature’s Viagra. Erb is the ideas man but he needs a details man, which he finds in Kelly Harvey. Kelly is Erb’s opposite in every way: a strict Mormon father of four and well respected in the supplement business.
Featuring interviews with key figures involved, this film tells the true story about an unlikely partnership between Erb and Kelly who got together to create what would be marketed as an all-natural sexual supplement that would compete with Viagra.
They called the pill Stiff Nights and it had enormous success selling in shops all over the US and beyond, but the success was short-lived when the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) started looking into them and discovered that Stiff Nights wasn’t all natural and contained sildenafil, an ingredient in Viagra. An investigation was launched - an elaborate sting - and that’s when the action got very hot...
Kelly is arrested in a dawn raid and threatened with 200 years for his part in the scam. He accepts a plea deal and does 3 years in prison. His reputation never recovers. But Erb escapes the US and is never charged. In this film we’ll follow Kelly in his search for his elusive partner who he has never heard from. How did the radical vegan get off and the Mormon father end up in prison? Did Erb throw Kelly under the bus for freedom?
While following the story of Stiff Nights, the film looks at the birth of Viagra (which marks the 25th anniversary of its launch this year) and hears from its lead scientists who developed this infamous little blue pills.
The Great Erection Deception: The Stiff Nights Story also charts the rise of the culture of modern-day ‘over the counter’ sexual supplement pills by talking to users, distributors and sex shops and shed light on what has now become a multi-million-dollar business.
Read More
Starring: Narrated by Zoe Wanamaker
Produced By: Plum Pictures
Director: Will Fisher (UK) Will Francome (US)
Producer: Krystina Meens, Sarah-Louise Ball
Executive Producer: Lisa Keene, Stuart Cabb
Broadcaster: ITVX | Year of Production: 2023
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