See look-a-like Tampex - See the smaller TamPak
See the real Tampax patent and early history plus a very early Tampax
HOMEPAGE
CONTRIBUTE to Humor, Words and expressions about menstruation and Would you stop menstruating if you could?
Some MUM site links:
HOMEPAGE |
MUM address & What does MUM mean? |
Email the museum |
Privacy on this site |
Who runs this museum?? |
Amazing women! |
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, some current |
Puberty booklets for girls and parents|
Religion |
Religión y menstruación |
Your remedies for menstrual discomfort |
Menstrual products safety |
Seguridad de productos para la menstruación |
Science |
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 |
Read 10 years (1996-2006) of articles and Letters to Your MUM on this site.
Leer la versión en español de los siguientes temas: Anticoncepción y religión, Breve reseña - Olor - Religión y menstruación - Seguridad de productos para la menstruación.

MUSEUM OF MENSTRUATION AND WOMEN'S HEALTH

TamPak menstrual tampons, super, with applicator, Turkey, 1973
Box

Turkey imitated Tampax as well as American films like The Wizard of Oz

I believe Turkey is 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, maybe because Tampax was the only tampon most of the customers knew or heard of.

The imitation starts with the color, which has perhaps changed from oxidation. (Compare with a Tampax box from a few years before, below.)

The name itself is revealing. Someone, probably from Tambrands, wrote on the white label. Do you see the double line under the letter K, pointing out the difference between the real and fake Tampax? I'd bet the Tampax lawyers saw it too. I think the capitalization of the letter P, plus the K for the X, were intended to fend off lawsuits, at the same time leading the buyer astray. And the typeface is completely different; it looks like a German typeface from decades before, and might be, since Germany helped westernize Turkey after World War I, starting with its language, which had an Arabic script.

Unlike the smaller TamPak this one has an applicator. Tampax famously made the first tampon with an applicator (see the patent and early history plus a very early Tampax).

Nowhere do you find patent information - if there is a patent.

The box measures 5.5" x 4" x 1.5" (14 x 10 x 3.5 cm).

Tambrands kindly donated the box as part of a large gift from its archives.

 

Someone at Tampax underlined K twice, once more than with the smaller TamPak.

 The star patterns.
 

Left: Tampax box, Nov. 17, 1970 (gift from Tambrands). Note the identical typefaces for "tampon[s]."

 

Compare the sides, above and below. Why would the Turkish box bear English, repeating the Tampax verbiage? Maybe to fool a buyer who equates Tampax with tampon just as many Americans do. The instructions, inside, are in Turkish.

 

Tampax since its beginning emphasized "NO BELTS, NO PINS, NO PADS," irritations women put up with for years (see one on a mannequin) and would soon almost completely abandon (except for pads) when adhesive pads appeared (see an early one here - and see some belts).

 

One end of the box. The other end has "registered trademark" in Turkish.

Next page: the tampons - instructions - See the smaller TamPak - See look-a-like Tampex - 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
this Web site in any manner or medium without written permission of the
author. Please report suspected violations to hfinley@mum.org