Directory of tampons on this site.
Read also the important following articles (issues listed) in the Rochester
(New York) Patriot newspaper, which
investigated Rely in 1975 and 1976, years before the toxic shock crisis:
23 July-5 August 1975 (front cover)
- 6-26 August 1975 - 11
December 1975-13 January 1976 - 1-14 September
1976) - a letter to a customer assuring her that
Rely was safe (April 1980) - and a letter from
Procter & Gamble (22 September 1980) announcing that it was stopping
distribution of Rely because of health concerns
And read Lynn Peril's series about these
and similar booklets!
See more 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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Trust menstrual tampon, U.S.A., 1977
Procter & Gamble, distributors
Very bad luck killed Procter & Gamble's tampon business in 1980.
That luck came from the even worse luck of many women who used its very
absorbent Rely tampon and either died or suffered other consequences from
toxic shock syndrome, an illness that starts not only in the vagina but
elsewhere and in men. (See and read more about Rely.
And read the letter P&G sent to stop distribution
of the tampon, and some 1970s articles criticizing
the tampon.)
You'll appreciate the irony in the name Rely. But about the same time,
the mid-to-late 1970s, the company marketed another tampon with an inspiring
name, Trust. P&G's bad luck continued with the name of this second tampon,
a name destined for mockery, although I don't know of any illness associated
with it, but P&G pulled out of the tampon business. It re-entered when
it bought the premier name in tampons, in 1997, Tampax. It couldn't go wrong
with a tampon tested since the early 1930s. Not
that toxic shock cannot occur in any tampon, although it's very unlikely.
And some women are more susceptible than others, which a test can determine.
Trust seems to consist of cotton, not the artificial fibers in Rely;
the box and directions list no ingredients.
I thank Tambrands, which donated this
box in 1997 as well as about 1000 other items from its archives to this
museum. Tampax, which Tambrands made, is now part of Procter & Gamble.
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The box measures 3.25 x 5.5 x 1.125" (8 x 14 x 3 cm). Someone at
Tambrands wrote on the box. The other side lacks "Distributed by .
. . ."
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Ten tampons cost $0.39.
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Next: the Trust tampon
and directions
See the super Rely tampon, two
sections of its instructions , and an ad for Rely
from 1980.
Read also the important following articles (issues listed) in the Rochester
(New York)
Patriot newspaper, which investigated Rely in 1975 and 1976, years
before the toxic shock crisis.
Directory of tampons on this site.
© 2006 Harry Finley. It is illegal to reproduce
or distribute work on this Web site in any manner or
medium without written permission of the author.
Please report suspected violations to hfinley@mum.org
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