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).
 
|
 
What does o.b. mean? Part 1 (Part 2)
Folder for o.b. tampons, Germany, probably early 1950s.
When I opened the museum in my house (see some pictures),
in 1994, I called the library of the Johnson &
Johnson company, which owned o.b., to ask what o.b. meant. No one knew.
The lady said she would ask old-timers with the company to see if they remembered
- if they were in on it in the first place.
I knew that a German company, Dr. Carl Hahn GmbH, invented the tampon
in the late 1940s or early 1950s and owned the tampon until the 1970s, when
J&J took over. I also knew German pretty well, having long ago diddled
around in graduate school studying for a master's in German (I fled to Germany
before getting it and stayed 13 memorable years in Heidelberg, Frankfurt
and Aschaffenburg; everyone should flee to someplace far away at least once
- look at this landscape to see why). So - hmm,
lessee - it's a tampon, meaning no pad. Could it be ohne
Binde, which means "without [a] pad"?
("Binde" looks as if it would mean "belt," so, "without
[a] belt," - which would make sense - but belt is in fact "Gürtel,"
like our English girdle, and pad is "Binde.") German nouns - Binde
- are capitalized; marketing people, even in Germany, play with words and
made the B small.
In 2000 an e-mailer to this site (here)
insisted it stood for obstetrician - but I
thought a woman needing an obstetrician would rather use a pad, not a tampon.
And that's an English word. And why did periods - periods! - sit after the
o and b? Anyway, she was wrong, as you'll see.
I called the library lady back and offered my guess, which she took
under consideration. But, as you can see on the folder below, I was right.
So I had the huge pleasure of telling J&J what
one of their product names meant!
Like the name o.b., early American tampons often printed the words pad
or napkin on their boxes so women could make a connection to something familiar
- see Sa-tips, for example.
O.b. is the first commercial tampon indigenous to Europe that I know
of; the American company Tampax advertised in Europe in the late 1930s (here) but probably gave up until after the war.
I've heard of German women sewing their tampons around 1900, I assume part
of a long tradition of women making their own tampons.
Like almost all early tampons in the U.S.A. (for example, Fibs)
o.b. had no applicator, which Tampax invented
and patented. Lox ("the
theatrical tampon," not because of its histrionics but because
the company was trading on the use of tampons by people who must be on a
stage) did have a single tube (Tampax employed two) and exemplified a reason
why tampons came into general use: they loxed tampons
in place - sorry, locked - so they wouldn't fall off as pads could
- and of course were invisible compared to the enormous pads of the time
(here from a slightly earlier era, the middle
1920s).
A Dutchman kindly sent me the scans.
|
 |
The contributor didn't mention what size the folder is.
Originally the beam of light trained on o.b. did not have the red-and-yellow
pattern; that's a moire pattern caused by the dots in the picture meeting
the pixels of our image.
The left side reads (my translation)
The o.b. hygiene is the new monthly hygiene of the modern woman who takes
good care of herself. The o.b. tampon gives certain protection through its
superior absorption ability. It's pleasantly soft yet firm enough to make
insertion comfortable and easy. It swells with blood in a limited way that
conforms to the female body, and which a woman can't detect. Therefore always
ask for o.b., the German brand tampon.
Dr. Carl Hahn KG
Dusseldorf 1
Buy at
The right side:
The future
of women's hygiene
o.b.
ohne binde [without {a} pad]
clinically tested
recommended by doctors
|
 |
The text reads:
It will thrill every woman . . . .
The age-old problem of of invisible monthly protection is solved! Small
tampons formed from cotton that are used internally and which are easy to
remove with a built-in string absorb the bleeding internally.
This most modern monthly hygiene has proved itself for more
than a decade in the West and is preferred by millions of women. The advantages
of the discarding of pad and belt [Binde und Gürtel] are so convincing
that it is clear that:
1. No hindrance during "your days":
A tampon, which is worn internally, can't rub or hinder you while walking.
2. Not visible under clothing: A tampon worn internally is
invisible. You can move about unembarrassed in a close-fitting dress, in
a sport dress and even in a bathing suit.
3. No odor: Because tampons completely absorb the blood internally
there's no chance of embarrassing odor.
4. No embarrassment: You can carry several of the small tampons
in a hand bag any time, which protects you from an unpleasant surprise.
The German brand o.b. combines all these advantages. The
new o.b. takes all unpleasantness from the period.
Young girls are advised to ask their doctor before using
o.b.
|
©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
|