MTV Ad for Teva's Plan B Morning-After Pill Has Some Parents Up in Arms
Duramed, the unit of Teva/Barr that markets the Plan B morning-after contraceptive, is advertising on MTV.com, and some parents don’t like it, according to Ad Age.
Denise O’Donoghue and her husband, Patrick, who have a 14-year old daughter, said:
For MTV to run this ad is irresponsible. There are some kids — girls and boys — who aren’t quite ready to understand all this. Between that and the way the advertising for Plan B makes it sound like you can make a mistake and have a do-over, it’s irresponsible.
Added Wendy Wright, president of the Washington-based advocacy group Concerned Women for America:
It adds to my concern that the owner of Plan B is directly targeting younger girls in order just to sell more of their product, without concern for the health or the emotional well-being of those girls.
Interestingly, the O’Donoghues told Ad Age they don’t want their daughter to see the ad in part because her daughter already has “misinformation” about sex:
We asked her what she knew, and we were shocked at how much misinformation and misconception among kids is really out there about sexual education.
The report doesn’t say how depriving their daughter of more information will help her.
Plan B (pictured) seems to cause controversy wherever it appears. The Bush adminstration recently altered federal rules allowing doctors to prevent rape victims from receiving the drug. Back in 2005, it emerged that Plan B’s approval by the FDA — which stopped it from being an over-the-counter contraceptive — was made not for scientific reasons but because federal officials had bizarre, squeamish views about girls and under-age sex. They believed its presence on shelves would encourage sex.
The MTV ad promotes go2planb.com, the brand’s web site, which is a tame, straightforward affair. Plan B is available without a prescription from Pharmacies; under-17s must get a prescription. The O’Donoghues believe MTV is targeted to girls way too young to be thinking about sex; Duramed claims the average age of an MTV.com visitor is 24.
Plan B’s slogan is, aptly, “Because the unexpected happens.”
Jim Edwards, a former managing editor of Adweek, has covered drug marketing at Brandweek for four years, and is a former Knight-Bagehot fellow at Columbia University's business and journalism schools. Follow him on Twitter or send him an email.
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