These morning-after pill ads spin the need for emergency contraception into comedy gold

We all know someone who’s been there: Questionable choices were made, something broke or was skipped, an unwanted pregnancy may be on the horizon. The logical response is often panic, but the founders of Julie, the women’s healthcare company whose first product is an over-the-counter emergency contraceptive (EC), believe there’s a better reaction. And it starts with relatable humor.

“That’s one thing pharmaceuticals has never done: They’ve never made it personal,” says Amanda E/J Morrison, cofounder and president of Julie. “We don’t want to be this cold company that just sells pills. We want to be that best friend’s big sister who’s just as likely to send you the latest TikTok meme as she is to answer your medical questions.” 

Being relatable became Julie’s rallying cry back in the spring, when Morrison and Chloe Hall, head of brand, were kicking around advertising ideas and realized that a lot of the stories around unplanned pregnancy—which accounts for about half of all pregnancies in the U.S.—were actually pretty funny. Hall began riffing ideas via text with her friend, comic Esther Povitsky.

“We were texting messages we’d gotten from friends, like, ‘Oh my god, I hooked up with a guy who had all blow-up furniture,’ or ‘This guy only owns one bowl,’” Hall recalls. “They’re kind of these horror stories, but they’re real and fun and light and true.”

Hall hired Povitsky to write and direct an ad in which two women duke it out, verbally, at a convenience store over the last box of Julie, explaining the myriad reasons why each could not have a baby with last night’s lover. “Mine puts cologne on his forehead,” one reveals about her partner. “My boyfriend is a DJ . . . in the Metaverse,” says the other. It reimagines the so-called second walk of shame as not so shameful. It’s disarming. Also, it’s funny.

Julie’s demographic of 18- to 34-year-olds ate it up. By May 10, the commercial had racked up more than 9.4 million views, along with 76,000 likes and more than 872 hours of play time on TikTok alone. One consumer’s post on Instagram went viral, with 2.5 million views and 62,200 likes. “The viral posts, the viral comments . . . we were like, okay, we’re onto something,” recalls Hall. “But it takes two to tango, so we kind of wanted to flip the script a little bit, but in the same context.” 

Morrison notes that fewer than 10% of men purchase the morning-after pill for their partners, so she and Hall decided to center the next campaign on the male perspective. “We were thinking, How can we spread that responsibility around,” says the cofounder.

In the most recent ad, once again directed by Povitsky, comedians Brandon Wardell and Nick Rutherford also meet in the family-planning aisle and are forced into a game of brinkmanship as to why each cannot possibly father a child just now.

“When I’m too lazy to do laundry, I wear a swimsuit because it has built-in underwear,” Rutherford drones. “I have a crypto tattoo on my upper thigh,” quips Wardell.

Watching the two seasoned comedians improvise, says Hall, was comedy gold. “We were in Video Village watching the recording just truly crying-laughing,” Hall recalls. “Our ads are talking about women’s issues the way women talk about them. We can joke and laugh and have some levity because that’s the reality we all live.”

The morning-after pill has been around since 1977, but Julie is the first brand to take the FDA-approved, over-the-counter EC and package and market it to a new generation. There remains stigma and shame around EC, but Morrison and Hall insist that through humor and provocativeness, they can change the conversation around women’s health and family planning.

“All the groups out there that have been saying the serious things with a straight face for decades haven’t changed the outcomes,” says Morrison. “If you want something different, you’ve got to do something different.”

Julie is sold in all 50 states and is available at 13,000 CVS, Walmart, and Target stores. Its packaging is bright and cheery—and not locked in some cabinet at the back of a dark aisle. If Julie aims to be that knowing big sister, these comedic ads prove her to be a pretty hilarious one, too.

“We say we’re a content-first pharmaceutical company,” explains Morrison. “The medicine exists: That innovation has already been done. What was missing is relatability.” With a dash of belly laughs.