Ildong under fire for unfairly marketing contraceptive pill

Ildong Pharmaceutical faced a series of criticism over its advertisement of contraceptive pill Daon Tab. which it released last year.

On Friday last week, the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety said it ordered Ildong to suspend the ad of Daon Tab. (ingredient: ethinyl estradiol/levonorgestrel) for one month from March 19 to April 18.

Ildong Pharmaceutical came under fire for unfairly advertising contraceptive drugs Daon and Baraon.

The administrative punishment came after Ildong advertised that it would provide prizes for using Daon. The local drug safety rules prohibit the advertising of medicines that offer prizes and gifts.

After launching the oral contraceptive drug last year, the drugmaker held a writing contest on contraception.

More specifically, Ildong rolled out second-generation contraceptive pill Daon Tab. and third-generation drug Baraon Tab. (desogestrel/ethinyl estradiol) in May last year. Then, the company launched a separate website for the two products and held an online writing contest.

During the contest, the company asked women to write a short story on their perception of contraception, gender, and social prejudice. The contest aimed to support women and share their diverse thoughts, Ildong said.

However, the problem emerged as Ildong provided prizes monthly during an event where the contraceptive pill's brand name was exposed on the website. The company gave mobile coffee coupons to 10 winners every month and Bluetooth earbuds Apple AirPods Pro to the first prize winner.

Ildong said it would use stories submitted for the contest in its marketing of Daon and Baraon. Indeed, the company used some phrases from the stories as slogans for the two products on its social media, Instagram.

It is not the first time that Ildong’s ad of Daon received criticism. When the company released a YouTube ad last year, along with the launch of Daon and Baraon, the internet users scolded Ildong for careless copies in the commercial.

In the video, a female model said that “contraception is a self-care” and that “a woman who takes a contraceptive pill is a super cool one who is sure to take care of herself.”

Netizens slammed the phrases, saying they sounded as if only women were responsible for contraception.

After the issue became controversial, Ildong deleted the YouTube video and released an edited version.

The company said, “We stopped the ad immediately after we recognized a possibility of misunderstanding,” in a statement.