Nabil Hasan

MKT 388
Dr. Shaffer
Assignment #3
March 16, 2019

Plan B One-Step emergency contraception is a backup plan that helps prevent pregnancy

when taken within 72 hours (3 days) after unprotected sex or birth control failure. The sooner it is

taken, the better it works. Plan B works for woman with no age restriction. The ad states that Plan

B One-Step is the number one recommended OTC emergency contraception brand by OB/GYN.

To purchase Plan B, you do not need a prescription, nor do you have to show an ID. In the Plan B

box there is one pill that is taken by mouth. Before the pill it is advised to read the instructions that

can be found on the box. Plan b also called “the morning after pill” is for back up contraception

only, it is not a primary method of birth control. The morning after pill cannot be used if you are

allergic to any component of the pill. Also taking certain medications can decrease the

effectiveness of the pill. The pill will not be as effective if the female taking it is overweight or

obese as it is for woman who are not overweight. There is a list of side effects that typically last a

few days after taking the pill.

Plan B was approved as a prescription drug by the FDA in May 1999. However, in 2003

an application was submitted to switch Plan B from Rx to OTC the decision was made by the FDA

in February 2004, but FDA announced that it will delay the decision up to 90 days. The FDA

rejected the application that was submitted to switch Plan B from Rx to OTC, citing lack on data

on females younger than 16. After going through the prolonged process of deciding whether on

keeping Plan B a prescription drug or OTC, the approval for making Plan B an OTC was made in

June 2010 and can be sold for unrestricted sale on the shelf. Plan B is in its maturity state, because

there is a generic brand of the pill, so profits of Plan B declined. Generic pills are often cheaper
for all drugs that being the case Plan B offers a coupon in this ad for $10 making the price of the

name brand pill similar to the competitors price.

The AD for Plan B was placed in the magazine Vogue. According to the magazine’s media

kit, Vogue has readers of 10.8 million. The average age of the readers for this magazine is 38 and

90% of them pay attention to the advertising they see in print. Woman that read vogue are between

the ages 18-34, millennial readers make up 7.6 million alone. Based on the readers of vogue the

target market for the magazine is young woman which makes the placement of the ad reasonable.

In the ad is mentioned that by visiting the website PlanBOne-Step.com you can get a $10 coupon.

The ad was placed in the first 40 pages of the magazine and it was a full, colored page which was

around $40,000 dollars. I think the ad was well placed and reached its target market.

Plan B pill is very safe and side effects are not very common, there was no reports of

serious problems out of the millions of people who took the pill. Insurance companies cover birth

control pills but since plan b has been moved to OTC and anybody can buy it without any problem.
http://healthland.time.com/2013/06/11/timeline-the-battle-for-plan-b/

https://www.mayoclinic.org/tests-procedures/morning-after-pill/about/pac-20394730

https://ec.princeton.edu/pills/planbhistory.html