Still, past experience indicates that the sponge will have a clientele among women who seek control over their own contraceptives and the convenience of a product that does not require a doctor’s prescription.Īnd whatever its business prospects in 2009, the Today Sponge has a cultural status that transcends its role as a mere drugstore convenience. And it would be far behind the approximately $263 million the nation spent on condoms in the last 12 months, according to Information Resources Inc., a market research company. Mayer said.Īt a wholesale price of $9 a package, that would work out to about $6 million annually in wholesale revenue a minuscule amount compared with the nearly $3.5 billion that Americans spent on prescription birth control pills last year, according to IMS Health, a medical information company. If the reintroduction of the sponge attracts both new customers and its previous loyal audience, the brand might now sell two million sponges a year, packaged in boxes of three at a retail price of $14.99, Mr.
Another reason is that health experts who once thought the spermicide component inhibited sexually transmitted diseases now warn that the material may actually increase the risk of transmission, he said. This is partly because his company plans to spend only $1 million on advertising this year. Tony Cenicola/The New York Timesīut he expects significantly decreased sales now. “I think the sponge has a place, but it’s not going to become the be-all to all women.”Įlaine, a character in Seinfeld, played by Julia-Louis Dreyfus, hoarded sponges. “I think the previous owners thought, ‘It’s such an iconic brand thanks to Seinfeld, it’s going to be swept off the shelves,’ ” said David Mayer, president of Mayer Laboratories in Berkeley, Calif., the distributor, whose company also makes the Kimono brand of condoms. And it does not protect against sexually transmitted diseases. It can have a failure rate of more than 10 percent. Notably, though, for all of the product’s pop-culture spongeworthiness, the new distributor has only modest sales expectations.Ĭompared with the birth control pill and condoms, the Today Sponge may generate comparatively little revenue. This summer, it is scheduled to also go on sale at 6,700 Walgreens stores. The Today Sponge is scheduled to go on sale by this weekend at 6,500 CVS and Longs Drug Stores, the distributor said. The new distributor hopes to bring some stability to the brand. “I was so angry when it disappeared again.” “I was completely devastated when it disappeared the first time,” said Louise Rozett, a freelance book editor in Brooklyn, who had used the sponge to avoid hormone-based birth control pills. Left stranded were any number of loyal devotees who describe themselves as “sponge fans,” eagerly awaiting its latest comeback. That new proprietor declared bankruptcy in late 2007, taking the Today Sponge out of production last year. It reappeared in 2005 under new ownership, which spent millions to promote the brand before selling it to another company. Introduced in 1983, the sponge first disappeared from drugstores in 1994 after some manufacturing problems.
Now, a new distributor is introducing it again this weekend, hoping to reclaim that status. The contraceptive sponge has bounced back yet again.Īnd this time it is repackaged for a younger generation who may not remember the Today Sponge or the 1995 episode of “Seinfeld” in which Elaine hoarded her stash, for use only with boyfriends she deemed “spongeworthy.”Īt one time the Today Sponge, a spermicide-coated polyurethane barrier placed in the vagina to inhibit sperm, was the most popular form of over-the-counter birth control for women.
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