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
|
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.
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
|
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