See the fax
tampon and the almost identical tampon Nunap
sold probably about the same time, both probably
made of Cellucotton, the component of Kotex. See
Dale and fax tampons
See other marketing devices: Ad-design contest for menstrual
products in the United Kingdom; "Your Image is Your Fortune!,"
Modess sales-hints booklet for stores, 1967
(U.S.A., donated by Tambrands, 1997)
See early tampoms Wix
and Dale and a bunch of other
earlier ones.
See some 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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Zephies menstrual tampon (U.S.A.,
1940s?)
Box
Like most early American tampons,
Zephies had no
applicator; Tampax early cornered the
market on them.
The only hint I can find about
menstruation is "when coming in
contact with moisture they instantly
expand and absorb an enormous amount"
on the back of the box, below. It's
possible this was a medical, not
menstrual (like Playtex,
Kotex &
Tampax),
tampon.
When
did the tampon appear? I searched the
government trademark database but
found no Zephies. The typography
reminds me of the 1930s and 1940s. The
text on the back of the box, below,
reads "to be used as an insert," which
suggests women might have needed help
in figuring out what they were. But
the box was open when Procter &
Gamble sent it to me and contained no
instructions that might have shed
light on its date.
The breezy name comes from the name
of the company.
Like Zephies, Fax had
no string or applicator; Wix came in a
beautiful box that could have held
candy. And see purple covering and
blue string on a Tampax
sound-a-like.
Procter & Gamble kindly
donated the box and contents as part
of a gift of scores of menstrual
products.
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Below:
the sides of the box, which measures 2
3/4 x 2 1/8 x 1" (70 x 55 x 26 mm).
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Below:
the top flips open and gives us
ungrammatical advice - but we already
bought it and don't need to be
persuaded!
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Below:
Borated means combined with or
containing borax or boric acid - that
can be poisonous.
Maybe that was to make the tampons
hygienic as promised on the main side
of the box while doing in the tampon
user (I'm sure not intentionally)
since the body absorbs the chemical.
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NEXT: the Zephies
tampon. See Dale and fax tampons,
both from about this time and a Turkish imitator of
Tampax. Directory
of all tampons on this site.
© 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
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