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MUSEUM OF MENSTRUATION AND
WOMEN'S HEALTH
Tampex menstrual tampons, no
applicator, Turkey? date?
Box
Turkey
imitated Tampax as well as The
Wizard of Oz, Star Wars and
other American films.
Poster
below
I think this tampon, like the
Turkish imitation TamPak, is
Turkish. Turkey is probably the most
Western of the Muslim nations and
possibly sold tampons before the
others. And it looks as if a company
made a look-a-like Tampax, this time
closely imitating the name, replacing
the A with an E.
The imitation continues with the
color, although it's greener. (Compare
with a Tampax box from 1970, below.)
As an online German Spiegel
series shows, Turkey at roughly this
time also imitated American
films like The
Wizard of Oz (poster below)
and Star Wars.
Apparently someone from Tampax, the
offended company, wrote a memo about
this imitator (see the white label,
below). The
typeface
is very close to the Tampax original
except for the T. Much of the text on
the box - strangely, in English
although the instructions are Turkish!
- is from a Tampax box. My theory is
that women who had been used to seeing
or hearing about Tampax - the real one
- would buy this box, but maybe
couldn't read the English
instructions. People will say, "Get me
a box of Tampax," meaning tampons, and
the person will grab this one.
But, as with the small TamPak, the
big difference is what's inside:
tampons with no applicators! Tampax
famously made the first tampon with an
applicator (see the patent and
early history plus a very early
Tampax). The super-size TamPak does
have an applicator, here.
Nowhere do you find patent
information - if there is a
patent.
The box measures 4.625" x 2" x
0.625" (11 x 5.2 x 1.6 cm), the same
as the small TamPak.
Tambrands kindly donated the box
as part of a large
gift from its archives.
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Below:
Turkey not only imitated Tampax
(pictures below the poster) but
American films such as The
Wizard of Oz (poster from
"Süpertrash aus Hüllywood.")
(See many posters from the series at
http://einestages.spiegel.de/external/ShowTopicAlbumBackgroundXXL/a24728/l14/l0/F.html#featuredEntry).
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Above:
Circle: For a larger size the
big-hearted company recommends the
company it's copying! Someone at
Tampax Inc., which donated the box,
wrote the label.
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Above:
The other side of the box. Compare the
text with Tampax box, below.
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Above:
The Tampax box that Tambrands dated
Nov. 17, 1970
(gift from Tambrands). Note the almost
identical typefaces for the brand
names.
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Above:
The famous "NO BELT[S], NO PINS, NO
PADS" on both boxes, although other
American tampons also used the phrase
or variants.
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Above:
Oops! "Sure" instead of
"Safe," which they got right on the
second picture from the top.
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Above:
The ends. Inside the oval, lower left
on the left-hand box, is the word
"Türkma[n?]. On the same box,
lower right, stands perhaps the price.
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© 2006 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
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