Red Eye On Santorum Backer’s Bad Birth Control Joke: ‘Guerrilla Marketing By Bayer?’

Last Thursday, the top political story of the day somehow became a bad joke by Rick Santorum supporter Foster Friess about women putting aspirin between their legs as birth control, and the many headlines taking the joke both offensively and seriously. There are many reasons this story was bizarre, but not so many for why Friess would be going around television saying things like that. On this morning’s Red Eye, host-for-the-day Andy Levy proposed an alternate explanation for why this happened: “guerrilla marketing campaign by Bayer?”

RELATED: Santorum Supporter Stuns Andrea Mitchell With Memories Of How ‘The Gals’ Used Bayer Aspirin As Contraception

Friess later apologized, Levy noted, saying somewhat humorously that his wife “understood the joke, but didn’t like it anyway.” Guest Anthony Cumia didn’t seem overwhelmingly surprised that the joke was horrible– “he’s an old guy, he’s got old jokes.” Cumia also had to explain the punchline of the joke to the rest of the panel that thought it may have been an

actual suggestion: the aspirin between the knees keeps the legs shut.

As for whether Santorum should be held responsible for this sort of thing, the panel seemed not to think so. As guest Remi Spencer put it to Levy, “is Fox responsible for any one of your bad jokes?” She added that Friess wasn’t on the ballot, and that even if Santorum’s double-standard point was accurate, “I’m not sure how much people are blaming Santorum for this stupid joke?”

Levy also had a greater problem with the idea that birth control is even an issue. “How are we debating birth control in 2012?” he asked guest Dana Vachon, after making his guerrilla marketing joke. Vachon, on his end, was just “glad somebody is finally taking it to Charlie ‘Scorched Earth’ Rose.”

The segment via Fox News below: