The emphasis in the early advertisements wavered between an emphasis on science and a more emotional appeal. The first e.p.t advertisement, for example, featured eight paragraphs of text, a diagram showing the use of the dropper and test tube, and a photograph of the kit itself, showing test tubes suspended in a plastic container. Conversely, the ACU-TEST advertisement from the same year showed a woman’s face under the phrase “I wonder if I’m pregnant.” Biting her fingernail and looking pensively off camera, the woman embodied the ambivalence that often accompanied this new technology.

In many ways, a pregnancy test is difficult to market. The term “hCG” sounds foreign and the phrase “urine stream” is difficult to sugar coat. The test is so intimate that most advertisements focus on its accuracy or the short time frame to know the answer rather than on the meaning of the results. In the history of healthcare tests, the pregnancy test is unique in that—unlike blood tests for most diseases—a negative result can be cause for celebration for some, despair for others. With a pregnancy test, the reaction to the results is complex and depends on many personal factors.