More Tampax ads:
First Tampax ad? (1936) - actress Susan Dey ad, 1970 - gymnast Mary Lou Retton ad, 1986 - ad "Are you sure I'll still be a virgin?" Feb. 1990 - ad (British, nude) 1992 - Tampax sign (World War II)
Ad Aug 1965 - actress Susan Dey ad, 1970 - gymnast Mary Lou Retton ad, 1986 - ad, British, 1994 (the thong advantage)
See a very early Tampax ad (1936) - a very early Tampax box and contents - more early commercial tampons
See more Tampax items: American ad from August 1965 - nudity in an ad: May 1992 (United Kingdom) - a sign advertising Tampax during World War II - the original patent - an instruction sheet from the 1930s
The influential Dickinson Report (1945) - Early commercial tampons
Ad Aug 1965 - actress Susan Dey ad, 1970 - gymnast Mary Lou Retton ad, 1986 - ad "Are you sure I'll still be a virgin?" Feb. 1990 - ad (British, nude) 1992 - Tampax sign (World War II) - ad, British, 1994 (the thong advantage)
Australian douche ad (ca. 1900) - Fresca douche (date ?) - Kotique douche 1974 ad - Liasan (1) ad - Liasan (2) ad - Lysol 1928 ad - Lysol 1948 ad - Marvel 1926 ad - Midol 1938 ad - Midol 1959 booklet - o.b. German (papyrus tampons) - Pristeen 1969 ad - o.b. German (nude) - Sterizol 1926 ad - Vionell spray 1970 ad (Germany) - the odor page

A British Tampax ad using nudity (1992) - And see other ads directed at teenagers.

See a Modess True or False? ad in The American Girl magazine, January 1947, and actress Carol Lynley in "How Shall I Tell My Daughter" booklet ad (1955) - Modess . . . . because ads (many dates).
CONTRIBUTE to Humor, Words and expressions about menstruation and Would you stop menstruating if you could?
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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.

Convincing women to break with tradition and use Tampax menstrual tampons:
Ads, Germany (1989) and U.S.A (1953)

Although an American osteopath invented Tampax, a German woman immigrant to America was the president of the first company selling Tampax in America (read some history) and that tampon itself might have reached Germany around the time Hitler came to power; the Dutch and the French had it by 1938 (ads and the French Tampax here).

But Americans at least have had trouble accepting tampons from the beginning, what with worrying about virginity, whether the little devils would get lost and whether they're safe or not (see a newspaper campaign against Rely and the infamous tampon itself).

The main tampon in Europe for decades was o.b., which had no applicator (see an early folder). Like probably most American women, some Germans didn't like sticking their fingers into their bleeding vaginas, teeming with even more bacteria than usual because of the alkalinity of menstrual blood (read more here). The Tampax ad below describes Tampax's appeal.

Earlier, in the U.S., that representative of authority and health, the doctor, tried to convince a visitor to use Tampax. The company had used medical authority for years to push its 'pons by writing on its boxes that The Journal of the American Medical Association had accepted its advertising. But Kotex and other companies did the same thing; and of course a nurse invented Kotex.

Tampax is famous for promoting freedom from inconvenience; read the humor page for how that tampon can help people ride bicycles and swim, even if they aren't women.

"Do I have to use my finger??" wonders the woman, finger against her face, which heightens the point the ad makes. My best friend in my many-year stay in Germany, an author of books about that country, explained to me his law, based on reading American and German publications: Davis's Law observes that writers will unconsciously repeat words, or similar words, or images in nearby sentences. But here I think it's intentional and apt. My translation of the German ad lies below the second picture, which is an enlargement of the text in the ad.
Thirty-six years before the German ad, an American physician (below) just tries to convince his patient to use tampons, much less emphasize the applicator, which he mentions seemingly as an afterthought in one sentence. [Continued below the ad.]
My translation of the text:
"I'll get to the point: I find it simply unpleasant to put a tampon in with my finger. When my girlfriend told me about Tampax with the applicator I thought, that's for me. And using it was simple and gentle. The tampon gets to the right spot, where you don't feel it. You can toss the applicator into the toilet - no problem. And there's a Tampax Mini for young girls. No wonder that from now on I'll only be using Tampax."
Big words: "Tampax, from the beginning."
By 1953 Americans had had maybe 20 years of tampons (for example Wix, Kotex, B-ettes, Cashay, Dale and Lox), but women still preferred pads - as I believe they do today. In 1952 Tampax even ran an ad in a medical publication explaining its virtues to doctors. An earlier attempt to convince the public was Dr. Dickinson's comparison of tampons and pads in The Journal of the American Association (a shorter version appeared in Consumer Reports) which tilted way toward tampons; Dr. Dickinson sometimes worked for Tampax.
See more Tampax items: Another British Tampax ad, with nudity, 1992 - "Are you sure I'll still be a virgin?" ad (Feb. 1990) - August 1965 ad (U.S.A.) - a sign advertising Tampax during World War II - the original patent - an instruction sheet from the 1930s - and some other early commercial tampons

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