The controversial “morning-after pill” is the subject of a new ad campaign from McCann-Erickson for the Pacific Institute for Women’s Health.
The pro-bono print, radio and outdoor PSAs are the first ads for the nonprofit group since McCann in Los Angeles picked up the business last August.
The work is meant to increase awareness of emergency contraception, educate women about their options and get them to broach the topic with their healthcare pro viders, said Richard Mahan, McCann evp and executive creative director.
The effort, running in Los Angeles and San Francisco, includes two 60-second radio spots, as well as newspaper, magazine and bus-shelter ads and postcards. The campaign positions emergency con traception as a back-up plan and introduces the tagline, “Emergency contraception. Because $#*! happens.”
“The word ‘shit’ is in the vernacular [among young people],” Mahan said. “What better way to express that things happen—condoms break, things fail?”
The print and outdoor ads feature two white pills labeled “Uh” and “oh…” or “Oh” and “$#*!”
One radio spot has the squeak of bedsprings interrupted by a guy saying, “Oh, [beep]!” as he realizes his condom has broken. The other features a woman telling a friend about a romantic weekend in which she forgot her birth-control pills.
Ads emphasize that emergency contraception is not an abortion pill, does not prevent HIV or other STDs and must be taken within 72 hours of intercourse. They do not promote a specific brand of emergency contraceptive like Plan B or Preven.
PIWH communications officer Liz Barr said the Los Angeles organization was “willing to get in people’s faces” with the campaign. “Our focus in California is especially for women of color—women who, for economic and social reasons, wouldn’t have knowledge of [emergency contraception] in a way that more affluent women would,” she added.
A Hispanic campaign from cruz/kravetz:Ideas in Los Angeles is also in the works.
McCann Offers Straight Dope on Morning-After Pill
