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.
Parke-Davis and Company of Detroit, Michigan produced this Norlestrin Fe brand oral contraceptive around 1968. This olive-green plastic Petipac tablet dispenser contains a blister pack with 28 tablets. The blister pack organizes the monthly pill regimen into weekly rows, with three rows of 7 yellow Norlestrin tablets and one row of 7 brown pills (iron supplements). The inside top of the compact has a space for the prescription label, and a place to record the first day of the pill regimen.
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