See more Pursettes ads: September
1972 (letter testimonial) - August 1974 (cartoon
story) - October 1974 (cartoon story) - February 1974 (cartoon story) - August
1973 (letter testimonial) - 1975 (cartoon
story) - undated "regular" ad
See an actual Pursettes compact and a real
box of Pursettes and the tampon itself.
And see famous people, some under twenty, in menstrual products advertising.
 
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Pursettes menstrual tampon ad, September 1972
And a discussion of letter testimonials
This is a typical appeal to teenage girls for a company selling its
tampons to a young market. It's hard to believe that this was written without
an adman or adwoman holding her hand.
Note "Carol's" concern about her "membrane," her
hymen, a concern right from the beginning in
tampon advertising, as well as in doctors' examinations of teenagers and
younger girls. Note also the salutation, "Sirs."
Ever since at least the last century people have wondered about the
authenticity of testimonials like this, and
it was a concern of the opponents of Lydia Pinkham's
Vegetable Compound and other patent medicine companies. In fact, after
Mrs. Pinkham's death, a second Mrs. Pinkham supposedly answered people's
inquiries, although it was actually a staff of women who gave already prepared
replies (read one here, from 1910) to common
questions. That increased concern about the readers' letters themselves.
Readers sometimes received free medicine and money
to have their pictures taken for company advertising in Pinkham ads.
There were even brokers who dealt in letters praising patent medicines,
although that company denied using them.
The Pinkham company very successfully used
users' letters in their newspaper advertisements, often correcting grammar,
etc., and had files of thousands.
The ad below is from September 1972.
Large file because I want you to be able to
read the writing.
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© 1998 Harry Finley. It is illegal to reproduce or
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