See the Turkish super, applicator TamPak, 1973
See the real Tampax patent and early history plus a very early Tampax
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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.

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).

 

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.

 

Above: The other side of the box. Compare the text with Tampax box, below.

Above: The Tampax box that Tambrands dated Nov. 17, 1970 (gift from Tambrands). Note the almost identical typefaces for the brand names.

Above: The famous "NO BELT[S], NO PINS, NO PADS" on both boxes, although other American tampons also used the phrase or variants.

 

Above: Oops! "Sure" instead of "Safe," which they got right on the second picture from the top.

 

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.

Next page: the tampons - instructions - Super, applicator TamPak, 1973 - Tampax tampon from the early 1930s - Main Tampax patent - Ad from 1936 - World War II Tampax sign - Japanese tampon with finger cots

© 2006 Harry Finley. It is illegal to reproduce or distribute any of the work on
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