The popularity of “the Pill” created a new market for pharmaceutical companies. For the first time, healthy women would be taking medication for an extended period of time. Pill manufacturers developed unique packaging in order to distinguish their product from those of their competitors and build brand loyalty. Packaging design often incorporated a “memory aid” to assist women in tracking their daily pill regimen, as well as a discreetly designed case for easy carrying in bags and purses. The National Museum of American History’s Division of Medicine and Science’s collection of oral contraceptives illustrates some of the changes that the packaging and marketing of the Pill underwent from its inception in 1960 to the present.
The Ortho Pharmaceutical Corp. produced this Jenest-28 brand oral contraceptive for Organon Inc. of West Orange, New Jersey, around 1995. The foil wrapper contains a physician’s sample of Jenest-28, consisting of 21 hormonal tablets and seven inert green tablets. The pills were dispensed in a “cyclic tablet dispenser.”
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