o.b. ads, booklets & actual tampons: German (1970s) - German (1972) nude woman on bed - German nude (1970s) - French (1989) - folder, Germany, early 1950s (tells what o.b. means!) - Dutch, two ads from 1959 giving THEIR take on what o.b. means, which was wrong - Dutch ads, 1962, 1967 - Belgian ad with beach & bathing suits, 1980s? - o.b. puberty booklets (excerpts): German, Dutch (2004) - o.b. actual tampons: Switzerland (o.b.é.), 1970
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Leer la versión en español de los siguientes temas: Anticoncepción y religión, Breve reseña - Olor - Religión y menstruación - Seguridad de productos para la menstruación.

 

Museum of Menstruation and Women's Health

o.b. menstrual tampons
American ad showing the woman who "designed" the o.b. tampon, Judith Esser, August, 1984, Mademoiselle magazine

You seldom see inventors of products in menstrual advertising so look at Judith Esser, whom o.b. tampons presented as the "designer" of that tampon. (But you can see the face of the writer of Kotex's Margaret May menarche booklets, Mary Pauline Callender - assuming she existed.)

Why would the company do this? The world of menstrual products is very competitive and possibly o.b. felt that to gain the affection of some women it would announce that a woman designed o.b. (a German woman, I think, since o.b. started out as a German tampon and find out what o,b. means). An American male osteopathic doctor, Dr. Earle Haas, invented Tampax in the late 1920s and early 1930s (patent and early history). Even though the average person might not have known this, the company might have felt that associating a women's name and face with o.b. could not hurt.

(By the way, my name and face, both male, have made me a target for some women's criticism since men are obviously not competent to present facts about things female, just as women would not be qualified to research the prostate gland - oops! some women scientists have! I hope they've resigned in shame.)

I find it odd that the "designer" is looking not at her two companions but into space as if she were an object to be admired rather than a participant in a conversation.

And I think the company chose "designer" rather than the stronger word "inventor" since the commercial menstrual tampon without an applicator operated long before o.b.

See a slightly earlier booklet for girls in Germany from o.b. tampons. (See all MUM booklets for girls on this site.)
o.b. ads, booklets & actual tampons: German (1970s) - German (1972) nude woman on bed - German nude (1970s) - French (1989) - folder, Germany, early 1950s (tells what o.b. means!) - Dutch, two ads from 1959 giving THEIR take on what o.b. means, which was wrong - Dutch ads, 1962, 1967 - Belgian ad with beach & bathing suits, 1980s? - o.b. puberty booklets (excerpts): German, Dutch (2004) - o.b. actual tampons: Switzerland (o.b.é.), 1970

o.b. ads, booklets & actual tampons: German (1970s) - German (1972) nude woman on bed - German nude (1970s) - French (1989) - folder, Germany, early 1950s (tells what o.b. means!) - Dutch, two ads from 1959 giving THEIR take on what o.b. means, which was wrong - Dutch ads, 1962, 1967 - Belgian ad with beach & bathing suits, 1980s? - o.b. puberty booklets (excerpts): German, Dutch (2004) - o.b. actual tampons: Switzerland (o.b.é.), 1970

© 2008 Harry Finley. It is illegal to reproduce or distribute work on this Web site in any manner or medium without written permission of the author. Please report suspected violations to hfinley@mum.org