German Amira tampons: Early brochure (1950s?).
Dutch ad for Amira (August, 1979) showing blue liquid and nudity.
1920s Kotex pad disposal instructions in Spanish
Tampax Satin Learner's Kit, 2001, in 3 languages: English. Booklet, pads & tampons
Trousse de l'étudiante French
Estuche de Aprendizaje Spanish


See also Ads for Teens

Booklets menstrual hygiene companies made for girls, women and teachers - patent medicine - a list of books and articles about menstruation
Many more PADS, BOOKLETS - See TAMPONS, MENSTRUAL BELTS, CUPS, SPONGES, UNDERPANTS
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Read 10 years (1996-2006) of articles and Letters to Your MUM on this site.
Leer la versión en español de los siguientes temas: Anticoncepción y religión, Breve reseña - Olor - Religión y menstruación - Seguridad de productos para la menstruación.

Amira menstrual tampons, México, 1967
para la higiene interna mensuel de la mujer
Prosan, Fabrica Mexicana de Productos Sanitarios, S. A.
Buenavista, México

sanitary napkin, tampon, pad, belts, menstruation, women's health, ads for teenagers, menstrual period, cycle, panty

Tampons used to be a hard sell in Mexico and probably still are. On Dec. 8, 2000, The Wall Street Journal wrote:

While about 70% of women in the U.S., Canada and much of Western Europe use tampons, usage falls to the single digits in a handful of countries such as Japan and Spain, and it's not even measurable in much of the world. Just 2% of women in Mexico, as throughout most of Latin America, use tampons.
(Read a report of using NO menstrual absorption at all in a Mexican village; scroll down that page.)

In honor of this museum (it was open in my house at the time) and all the media attention I was getting, the women in the federal government office where I worked in the late 1990s presented me (in the office during office hours) a tampon "launcher" mounted on a plaque complete with engraved brass plate. A co-worker from Panama, a man with wife and two grown children, one a woman in her twenties, had no idea what the tampon was. We explained it to the embarrassed middle-aged man.

Repeat that millions of times and you have a picture of Latin America that Tampax was trying to change as described in the Journal article.

Why the low usage? Probably just what formed the American resistance to tampons in the 1930s and later: Catholic priests' morality worries, fear of losing virginity, wondering if they would ever find the 'pon again, and plain conservatism in a patriarchal society.

I wonder who occupies the company's building in Buenavista now. I hope not a drug cartel.

I thank Tambrands, the former maker of Tampax, for the donation!

Below: The box measures 5 1/4 x 3 x 1 1/8" (13.3 x 7.6 x 2.9 cm).
The facing side is identical (but without the Tampax hand's writing).
Below: The two small sides.
Below: The long sides are identical.
 

Next | instructions - tampon
German Amira tampons: Early brochure (1950s?).
Dutch ad for Amira (August, 1979) showing the famous blue liquid and nudity.
Tampax Satin Learner's Kit, 2001, in 3 languages:
English. Booklet, pads & tampons
Trousse de l'étudiante French
Estuche de Aprendizaje Spanish
Many more
BOOKLETS - See TAMPONS, MENSTRUAL BELTS, PADS, CUPS, SPONGES, UNDERPANTS

© 2010 Harry Finley. It is illegal to reproduce or distribute any of the work on this Web site in any manner or medium
without written permission of the author. Please report suspected violations to hfinley@mum.org