See the fax tampon and the almost
identical tampon Nunap sold probably about
the same time, both probably made of
Cellucotton, the component of Kotex.
See other marketing
devices: Ad-design contest for
menstrual products in the United Kingdom; B-ettes tampon
counter-display box and proposal to dealers,
with contract; (U.S.A., donated by Procter
& Gamble, 2001); "Your
Image is Your Fortune!," Modess
sales-hints booklet for stores, 1967
(U.S.A., donated by Tambrands, 1997)
A prominent American gynecologist said in 1945 that
medical tampons "used to pay the office
rent."
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fax tampon clip sheet for
publications (early-to-mid 1930s, U.S.A.)
Ads stressing no "pins, pads or
belts" started at the very
beginning of tampon advertising.
Read about women's unhappiness
with pads in the Gilbreth
Report (1927) and the Dickinson
Report (1945).
Why the name fax? (See
the tampon
and read more about it.) A woman
who listened to Howard Stern's
radio interview with me in 1998
came up with an intriguing
explanation, that it's a kind of
acronym for Freedom,
Comfort, Convenience (FCC), words on a fax counter
display.
One thing that amazes me is the
sophistication of the pitch to
retailers, which I once thought
had more modern origins. But early
Kotex
campaigns showed similar
sophistication, showing the
mercantile minds of Wallace Meyer
and Albert Lasker, the latter also
responsible for naming Planned
Parenthood, for first using the
word cancer on the radio and for
being an inspiration behind the
National Institutes of Health and
the Lasker Awards in medicine,
America's highest.
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©2001 Harry Finley. It is
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