See the actual Pursette tampon, box and tote
See a 1965 ad for a Pursettes school educational kit - Pursettes Getting to Know Yourself booklet for girls - other teaching booklets: Growing Up and Liking It and How Shall I Tell My Daughter?
See more Pursettes ads: September 1972 (letter testimonial) - August 1974 (cartoon story) - October 1974 (cartoon story) - February 1974 (cartoon story) - August 1973 (letter testimonial) - 1975 (cartoon story) - undated "regular" ad
Go to Saba ad, Are you in the know? (Kotex ads 1949, 1953), Ads for Teens
See a 1965 ad for a Pursettes school educational kit - Pursettes Getting to Know Yourself booklet for girls - other teaching booklets: Growing Up and Liking It and How Shall I Tell My Daughter?
See an actual Pursettes compact and a real box of Pursettes and the tampon itself.
And see famous people, some under twenty, in menstrual products advertising.
CONTRIBUTE to Humor, Words and expressions about menstruation and Would you stop menstruating if you could?
Some MUM site links:
homepageMUM address & What does MUM mean? | e-mail the museum | privacy on this site | who runs this museum?? |
Amazing women! | the art of menstruation | artists (non-menstrual) | asbestos | belts | bidets | founder bio | Bly, Nellie | MUM board | books: menstruation and menopause (and reviews) | cats | company booklets for girls (mostly) directory | contraception and religion | costumes | menstrual cups | cup usage | dispensers | douches, pain, sprays | essay directory | extraction | facts-of-life booklets for girls | famous women in menstrual hygiene ads | FAQ | founder/director biography | gynecological topics by Dr. Soucasaux | humor | huts | links | masturbation | media coverage of MUM | menarche booklets for girls and parents | miscellaneous | museum future | Norwegian menstruation exhibit | odor | olor | pad directory | patent medicine | poetry directory | products, current | puberty booklets for girls and parents | religion | Religión y menstruación | your remedies for menstrual discomfort | menstrual products safety | science | Seguridad de productos para la menstruación | shame | slapping, menstrual | sponges | synchrony | tampon directory | early tampons | teen ads directory | tour of the former museum (video) | underpants & panties directory | videos, films directory | Words and expressions about menstruation | Would you stop menstruating if you could? | What did women do about menstruation in the past? | washable pads
Leer la versión en español de los siguientes temas: Anticoncepción y religión, Breve reseña - Olor - Religión y menstruación - Seguridad de productos para la menstruación.

Pursettes menstrual tampon ad, September 1972
And a discussion of letter testimonials

This is a typical appeal to teenage girls for a company selling its tampons to a young market. It's hard to believe that this was written without an adman or adwoman holding her hand.

Note "Carol's" concern about her "membrane," her hymen, a concern right from the beginning in tampon advertising, as well as in doctors' examinations of teenagers and younger girls. Note also the salutation, "Sirs."

Ever since at least the last century people have wondered about the authenticity of testimonials like this, and it was a concern of the opponents of Lydia Pinkham's Vegetable Compound and other patent medicine companies. In fact, after Mrs. Pinkham's death, a second Mrs. Pinkham supposedly answered people's inquiries, although it was actually a staff of women who gave already prepared replies (read one here, from 1910) to common questions. That increased concern about the readers' letters themselves.

Readers sometimes received free medicine and money to have their pictures taken for company advertising in Pinkham ads. There were even brokers who dealt in letters praising patent medicines, although that company denied using them.

The Pinkham company very successfully used users' letters in their newspaper advertisements, often correcting grammar, etc., and had files of thousands.

The ad below is from September 1972.

Large file because I want you to be able to read the writing.

See a 1965 ad for a Pursettes school educational kit - Pursettes Getting to Know Yourself booklet for girls

© 1998 Harry Finley. It is illegal to reproduce or
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