Kotex's first (also called Kotams) & second stick tampons (U.S.A.) & their ads, 1960s to 1970s - Comfortube tampons (1967), box, tampons - the very early Kotex Moderne Woman, fax, Nunap, & Fibs, all 1930s.
"Remember how simple life used to be?" ads for the second stick tampon. - a Japanese stick tampon from the 1970s.
Early commercial tampons - Rely tampon - Meds tampon (Modess)
The first Tampax
Tampon directory.
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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

Kotams menstrual tampons (1944-1955?, U.S.A., International Cellucotton Products Co.,
maker of Kotex menstrual pads, panties, belts, educational booklets),


The name Kotams pops up on different products at least twice in tampon history. This is the first occasion.

Kimberly-Clark had failed in its early attempts to create successful tampons under various company and tampon names (Moderne Woman, fax, Nunap). With Kotams, it tried again by combining the gauze string of its earlier attempts with Tampax-like delivery tubes to make insertion more acceptable to Americans. American women used their fingers to insert the earlier, tubeless tampons, just as European women did with o.b.

But this Kotams also failed to sell well, according to "Kotex, Kleenex, Huggies: Kimberly-Clark and the Consumer Revolution in American Business," 2004, by Thomas Heinrich and Bob Batchelor. Kotams appeared later as a stick tampon in two versions (first & second) promoted by some beautiful ads.

Kimberly-Clark absorbed (sorry) the International Cellucotton Products Company in 1955 but the Heinrich & Batchelor book writes that Kotams appeared in 1960. Unless the ICPC kept its name I can't explain the discrepancy in dates, which explains my uncertainty about the dates of this Kotams.

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office reports that the first commercial use of the (now "dead") "Kotams" was 1944. A second filing for the name indicates 1956 as its first commercial use. Kimberly-Clark, ICPC's mommy, filed both claims. I suspect this is the 1944 Kotams because of the name International Cellucotton Products Co. on the box.

I thank Procter & Gamble for donating the box!
Below: The topless, stained, battered box - Don't look at me! That's the way it arrived at MUM - measures 2 1/2 x 4 3/4 x 1 3/4" (6.5 x 12.5 x 4.5 cm). The facing side is identical.
Below: The two sides are identical.
The bottom has the silver color and no text.
   
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Kotex's first (also called Kotams) & second stick tampons (U.S.A.) & their ads, 1960s to 1970s - Comfortube tampons (1967), box, tampons - the very early Kotex Moderne Woman, fax, Nunap, & Fibs, all 1930s. Cellucotton.
"Remember how simple life used to be?" ads for the second stick tampon. -
Japanese stick tampon from the 1970s.
Early commercial tampons - Rely tampon - Meds tampon (Modess)
The first Tampax - Tampon directory.

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