o.b. ads, booklets & actual tampons:
German (1970s) - German
(1972) nude woman on bed - German nude (1970s)
- French (1989) - folder,
Germany, early 1950s (tells what o.b. means!)
- Dutch, two ads from 1959 giving THEIR take on
what o.b. means, which was wrong - Dutch ads, 1962,
1967 - Belgian ad with
beach & bathing suits, 1980s? - o.b. puberty booklets
(excerpts): German, Dutch
(2004) - o.b. actual tampons: Switzerland (o.b.é.), 1970
 
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Museum of Menstruation and Women's Health
o.b. menstrual tampons
American ad showing the woman who "designed"
the o.b. tampon, Judith Esser, August, 1984, Mademoiselle magazine
You seldom see inventors of products in menstrual advertising so look
at Judith Esser, which o.b. tampons presented as the "designer"
of that tampon. (But you can see the face of the writer
of Kotex's Margaret May menarche booklets, Mary
Pauline Callender - assuming she existed.)
Why would the company do this? The world of menstrual products is very
competitive and possibly o.b. felt that to gain the affection of some women
it would announce that a woman designed o.b. (a German woman, I think, since
o.b. started out as a German tampon). An American
male osteopathic doctor, Dr. Earle Haas, invented Tampax in the late 1920s
and early 1930s (patent and early history).
Even though the average person might not have known this, the company might
have felt that associating a women's name and face with o.b. could not hurt.
(By the way, my name and face, both male, have made me a target for
some women's criticism since men are obviously not competent to present
facts about things female, just as women would not be qualified to research
the prostate gland - oops! some women scientists have! I hope they've resigned
in shame.)
I find it odd that the "designer" is looking not at her two
companions but into space as if she were an object to be admired rather
than a participant in a conversation.
And I think the company chose "designer" rather than the stronger
word "inventor" since the commercial menstrual tampon without
an applicator operated long before o.b.
o.b. ads, booklets & actual tampons:
German (1970s) - German
(1972) nude woman on bed - German nude (1970s)
- French (1989) - folder,
Germany, early 1950s (tells what o.b. means!)
- Dutch, two ads from 1959 giving THEIR take on
what o.b. means, which was wrong - Dutch ads, 1962,
1967 - Belgian ad with
beach & bathing suits, 1980s? - o.b. puberty booklets
(excerpts): German, Dutch
(2004) - o.b. actual tampons: Switzerland (o.b.é.), 1970
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o.b. ads, booklets & actual tampons:
German (1970s) - German
(1972) nude woman on bed - German nude (1970s)
- French (1989) - folder,
Germany, early 1950s (tells what o.b. means!)
- Dutch, two ads from 1959 giving THEIR take on
what o.b. means, which was wrong - Dutch ads, 1962,
1967 - Belgian ad with
beach & bathing suits, 1980s? - o.b. puberty booklets
(excerpts): German, Dutch
(2004) - o.b. actual tampons: Switzerland (o.b.é.), 1970
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