The Morning-After Pill Gets a Gen-Z Rebrand
As health companies step up marketing for morning-after pills, they are ushering in bright packaging and TikTok videos. ‘We want it to be fun and shareable.’
Emergency contraceptive pill Julie will launch with TikTok videos, bright packaging and influencer promotions.
By Chavie Lieber, WSJ
Sept. 27, 2022 12:12 pm ET
With TikTok videos, bright colors and sleek packaging, the morning-after pill is getting a rebrand—one aimed at Gen Z consumers.
Amid widespread efforts to step up digital marketing for morning-after pills, more female-focused healthcare companies are turning to TikTok campaigns that encompass a mix of education and humor. Though the methods of companies like Get Stix Inc. and Hey Favor Inc. are unusual within the drug market—including memes, viral audio clips and upbeat explainers—they are becoming more common as brands across industries aim to reach Gen Z shoppers now coming of age.
Now Julie, an emergency contraceptive pill out this week, will launch with a TikTok-video campaign and influencer promotions—the clearest sign yet of blurrier marketing between female-health pharmaceuticals and other lifestyle products.
“What we heard from women is that there is a second walk of shame,” said Amanda E.J. Morrison, a Julie co-founder, of buying emergency contraception.
Hours after the Supreme Court’s June 24 decision to end federal constitutional protections for abortion, morning-after pills were in limited supply or sold out at major retailers. Pharmacies and e-commerce sites, including Amazon, eventually put a cap on the number of pills a customer could purchase to prevent stockpiling.
The pills, which are legal in every state, prevent pregnancy by stopping ovulation and can be purchased by consumers of any age at major pharmacies without a prescription.
The Julie brand will be sold in 4,500 Walmart locations across the U.S. and on Walmart’s website, according to the retailer, in addition to Julie’s site. Some Walmart locations will have designated retail displays for the product in the personal-care section. A Walmart representative declined to comment. Emergency contraceptives are kept behind a pharmacy counter at some retailers.
Packaged in a blue box with bright pink lettering, the Julie pill will sell for $42.44, priced below some competing brands but above generics.
Ms. Morrison said that in its use of TikTok, Julie intends to combat misinformation about sexual health and will create content with the help of its medical advisers: “We want it to be fun and shareable.” Her co-founders are Brian Bordainick and Julie Schott of skin-care brand Starface, whose cartoonlike pimple patches are designed to be worn in public.
Hey Favor, a direct-to-consumer provider of morning-after pills, birth-control pills, menstrual care products and more, which does business as Favor, promotes a mix of educational and entertaining content on TikTok, which has more than one billion monthly active users, through its internal social-media team and influencer partnerships. “We know that our patients and our target patient is really spending most of their time on TikTok,” said Sarah Abboud, the company’s director of communications.
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