See the fax tampon and the almost identical
tampon Nunap sold probably about the same time, both probably made of Cellucotton,
the component of Kotex.
See other marketing devices: Ad-design contest
for menstrual products in the United Kingdom; "Your
Image is Your Fortune!," Modess sales-hints booklet for stores,
1967 (U.S.A., donated by Tambrands, 1997)
See early tampoms Wix and Dale
and a bunch of other earlier ones.
See some Kotex items: First ad
(1921) - ad 1928 (Sears and Roebuck catalog)
- Lee Miller ads (first real person in amenstrual
hygiene ad, 1928) - Marjorie May's Twelfth Birthday
(booklet for girls, 1928, Australian edition; there are many links here
to Kotex items) - Preparing for Womanhood (1920s,
booklet for girls; Australian edition) - 1920s booklet in Spanish showing
disposal method - box
from about 1969 - "Are you in the know?"
ads (Kotex) (1949)(1953)(1964)(booklet, 1956) -
See more ads on the Ads for Teenagers main page
 
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B-ettes menstrual tampon (U.S.A., 1935?)
Box and newspaper ad (1935, at bottom of page)
B-ettes joined the flock of American 1930s tampons without insertion
devices; the museum has only two applicator tampons from the first decade
of commercial menstrual tampons, Tampax (1936)
and LOX (1940?), the applicator, I think, helping
women accept the idea of tampons.
You won't find the the word "tampon" on the box or in the
instructions, maybe because many women still weren't familiar with the word,
or because the company wanted to substitute its name for the wad of cotton
that would become so important in many women's lives.
So how do you pronounce "B-ettes"? "Bee-ets"? "Bets"?
"Betties"? Dr. Lillian Gilbreth would have laughed at this ambiguity
and predicted the brand's early death (in her 1927 report
to Johnson & Johnson). The company spent much money on advertising in
1938-39, as pitched in its proposal to dealers (here),
but I suspect Dr. Gilbreth was right.
Procter & Gamble kindly donated the box and contents as part
of a gift of scores of menstrual products.
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As with some other tampons of the time, nothing on the box
tells a women how many tampons are inside (12), just "A month's supply"
on this display case (see it open) - nothing at
all on the individual boxes.
The price comes out to be a tad over 2¢ apiece, about what other contemporary
tampons cost (LOX, with an applicator, cost more than twice as much).
"No pads, no belts, no pins" mimics what the text on many other
contemporary tampon boxes shouted, and justifiably. Tampons encouraged women
to get out into the world and on an almost equal footing with men.
This display box measures 5.375" x 3.375" x 1.75"
(13.3 x 11 x 4.4 cm).
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"The older ways" meant mainly pads and belts, although
cups and sponges existed at this time, but I suspect women hardly used them.
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The American Medical Association chided Tampax for using this implied
endorsement on its packaging (Tampax took the statement off), but this usage
seems to have been common. Good Housekeeping, of course, was an American
magazine that lent its guarantee to certain products.
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The ad appeared in the Indiana Evening Gazette, Indiana, Pennsylvania,
on Friday, December 6, 1935, at the bottom of page 13 between ads for groceries.
The instructions and proposal
to dealers show addresses in Pennsylvania and New York, not Florida.
I hope they weren't one step ahead of the law! I very
much thank a genealogy researcher for sending this scan and several other
others of tampons and other information from mid-twentieth century newspapers!
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© 2001 Harry Finley. It is illegal to reproduce or
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