Backer gives lift to America's Cup finances

By HELEN TUNNAH

If there's ever a time to stifle a giggle, it's when a doctor is telling a crowded room that erectile dysfunction is no laughing matter.

But that's not easy when Viagra's rival Cialis reckons its anti-impotency pill, which could help millions of men, can work for up to a day and a half.

"All of your numbers are scary, including the 36 hours," quipped a grimacing Louis Vuitton media director, Bruno Trouble.

"Are you a supplier or a sponsor?" he asked the new America's Cup 2003 backers.

Cialis - the name derives from the French word for sky because "the sky's the limit" - has just been launched in Europe and should be available in New Zealand pharmacies within days.

That may be just in time for Saturday's start to the America's Cup match between Team New Zealand and Alinghi, for which Cialis was yesterday named as the third event sponsor, joining Air New Zealand and Fuji Xerox.

"The commitment of Cialis will provide a tremendous enhancement to the overall fan experience," America's Cup executive director Tony Thomas said.

Cialis is the product intended to challenge Viagra, which has also been linked to the cup after signing a sponsor's deal with Dennis Conner's Stars and Stripes.

It is produced through a United States joint venture between pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly and Icos Corporation, a biotechnology innovator which is a rival to Alinghi billionaire Ernesto Bertarelli's Swiss company Serono.

America's Cup sponsors - separate from Team New Zealand's - help to meet the costs of marketing and running the event rather than the sailing budget.

America's Cup 2000 had five sponsors, but this event has three.

Mr Thomas said a global economic slowdown had affected the number of sponsors available, but the event was now fully funded.

He said the sponsorship package had been designed to be at a higher level per sponsor this time, although for competition reasons figures would not be released.

He said that although the Cialis sponsorship was being announced only five days before the cup, it had effectively been in place for several months - sealed by e-mail through a foreign sponsorship firm.

nzherald.co.nz/americascup

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