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 styled cases to allow pills to be discreetly carried 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.
Lexis Pharmaceuticals of Austin, Texas, produced this N.E.E. 1/35 brand oral contraceptive around 1988. The 21-pill monthly dosage is in a blister pack arranged in three weekly rows of seven pills. The columns are labeled with the days of the week. The blister pack slips into a grey plastic sleeve. N.E.E. was a generic prescription. This object is a promotional pack that was mailed to doctors. It includes a booklet that introduces the new pill with “added physician and patient value” and calls itself “The OC brand for today’s generation.”
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