Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, August 16, 1994 TAG: 9408160097
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: C-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NEW YORK LENGTH: Medium
The female condom goes on sale for the first time this month at drugstore counters across the nation in a modest white box, with pages of instructions and 11 diagrams.
The manufacturer, Wisconsin Pharmacal Co. of Jackson, Wis., plans a $4 million ad campaign this year to sell the birth control device that looks like a large male condom with soft plastic rings on either end.
The company settled on the name Reality and a decidedly serious ad campaign to emphasize the condom's role in preventing sexually transmitted diseases as well as pregnancy. The device was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in May.
``We looked at names like Behold, Within, Beyond - pretty words and pretty packages with roses or young couples in the sunlight,'' said Mary Ann Leeper, chief executive of Wisconsin Pharmacal's female health division. But women who saw Reality thought it was a more serious product, she said. It is marketed in a plain white box with a pink female symbol.
Leeper hopes 1 million young women will use the product within a year, a projection that may be optimistic based on its sluggish reception in family planning clinics in the United States and in Britain, where female condoms have been available in drugstores for several years.
``They're not the most attractive. They're not terribly easy to use, and I think there's a need for greater education if they're going to be promoted,'' said Helen Axby, director of the Marie Stopes Health Clinics, Britain's version of Planned Parenthood.
Instructions required by the FDA run to two double-spaced typewritten pages and include 11 diagrams. The cost is about $2.75 each, compared with about $1 for a male condom.
U.S. family planning clinics have been offering them at discounts since last year.
Sue Epler, director of the Planned Parenthood Clinic in New York's Bronx, said just 40 packages of three have sold since February. A strong advocate, Epler said the instructions are no more complex than those for a diaphragm or tampon.
``If you read the instructions and you're familiar with your body, it's not that hard to figure out how to use this,'' she said.
However, marketing expert Al Ries doubts Reality will sell well, in part because it is visible, covering the outside of the vagina.
``Traditionally, the male is supposed to be the pursuer, and the female is supposed to be pursued. This is a product that is asking the female to accept a role she's uncomfortable with,'' said Ries, chairman of marketing consultant Trout & Ries in Greenwich, Conn. ``It's like trying to take the lances away from the knights and giving them to the damsels in distress.''
Mona Doyle, president of Consumer Network, a Philadelphia-based market research firm, said the product reflects women's changing perceptions of themselves.
``Women are taking a much greater responsibility for their own health than men are,'' she said. ``This fits in with the way a great many women are trying to live their lives.''
Reality represents a corporate shift for Wisconsin Pharmacal, which specializes in outdoor products such as insect repellent and water purification pills. It has spent about $12 million over nearly seven years on Reality.
One drawback may be its failure record. The FDA warns that about one in four users could get pregnant during a year of use, compared with a 15 percent to 17 percent failure rate for male condoms, diaphragms or sponges.
Reality's supporters say that rate was based on imperfect tests. The contraceptive has just a 3 percent failure rate with proper use, they say.
The pamphlet boasts that Reality feels more natural than the male condom and can be inserted hours earlier.
``Come home from the movie, kick off your shoes and while you're both getting a little more comfortable, excuse yourself to insert Reality,'' the pamphlet says.
by CNB