See a Pursettes
booket for teenagers (late 1950s?).
The Pursettes black plastic
tote (carrier) with tampons. (An ad sold
the tote, and an enthusiastic customer mentions the tote in her testimonial.)
Tampax keeps an eye on its competitor Pursettes:
Tampax tampon inter-office memo with attached
ads, U.S.A., 1964
Want to be a SCHOOLEBRITY in the know?
(Huh, you say?) Read
Are you in the know? BOOKLET collection
of the great pad & etiquette tips for teens
Kotex ran for decades (but without the ads) (1956)
Booklets menstrual hygiene companies made
for girls, women and teachers - patent medicine
- a list of books and articles about menstruation
See early tampons and a list of tampons on this site - at least the ones I've cataloged.
 
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Pursettes lubricated applicator
menstrual tampons, box of 16, 1960-70s?
Campana Corp., Batavia, Illinois, U.S.A.
teenage, women, health, menstruation, applicator, lubricated, Purilon, period,
hygiene
Campana seemed to aim Pursettes (small enough to fit in a purse) at
young users; the ads
emphasize that (more ads in the column at left)
for its non-applicator version. But these usual-size
applicator tampons take up more room in the purse and I suspect were not
what the company originally had in mind. Did it bow
to consumers who wanted as little contact as possible with menses
and genitals?
But the selling points for this tampon seemed to be the lubricated
applicator - the company had to tell users how
to handle it without its slipping - and the very
absorbent plug, the part that stays in the vagina. We all know that
the late 1970s ushered in the toxic shock crisis that certain tampon materials
caused. Did Purilon, the plug material here, play a part?
Pursettes apparently didn't survive the 1970s, the decade Johnson &
Johnson bought the German tampon o.b., which also
lacked an applicator. Was it because Americans didn't
like to put their fingers into their vaginas? Tampax eliminated that
closeness as explained at length in a German pamphlet
(translated). Menstrual cups and sponges
would seem to also have that problem. European women possibly had less of
a problem with that (o.b.).
The early (1930s?-40s) no-applicator Dale
tampon (with an ad) also had a lubricated tip,
rare among menstrual tampons.
I thank the contributor!
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Below: The box
measures 5 1/2 x 4 1/2 x 1 1/8" (14.3 x 11 1/2 x 2.8 cm).
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Below: Compare the box art with sections
of contemporary posters by Peter Max (top,
1968, "The Different Drummer") and Milton
Glaser (bottom, 1966, included in Bob Dylan's greatest hits album).
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Below: The back
of the box. "Prelubricated" appears
five - count 'em, 5 - times! Pursettes made it their selling
point since its applicator size was no longer different from other
tampons. It's interesting that the text doesn't mention the apparently
highly absorbent plug (the usually cotton or cellulose part) composed
of Purilon. The user would have to read the instructions for that information.
High absorbency would sell a lot of tampons
in the 1970s - Rely, for example - with tragic consequences.
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Below: The long sides
are identical.
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Below: But the short
sides are different.
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© 2010 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
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