See a Modess True or
False? ad in The American Girl magazine,
January 1947, and actress Carol
Lynley in "How Shall I Tell My Daughter"
booklet ad (1955) - Modess
. . . . because ads (many dates).
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Teeve menstrual tampons, Italy, 1967 (Johnson
& Johnson)
America probably
created the first commercial
menstrual tampons, which were likely
Tampax
and Wix, a
company Tampax absorbed (!) in the
late 1930s. Tampax in turn seems to
have sold the first commercial
tampons in countries around the
world, such as France and
the Netherlands
right before World War II. After the
war, o.b.,
from a German company, conquered
Europe.
When tampons arrived
in Italy is a mystery to me - and
was it Tampax?
Teeve is the first
Italian tampon the museum has and it
too is associated with an American
company, Johnson & Johnson. But
the craftsmanship suggests it was
made locally; I don't believe J&J
would produce such an awful looking
and badly working product.
I
also don't know how you pronounce
Teeve - is it like the English TV
for television? That seems silly.
But the "T" in the product name sure
seems stretched out to make the
old-fashioned TV antenna on
rooftops. I wonder if the idea of a
television in a middle-class family,
which might have been fairly new in
Italy in the Sixties, matched
another new thing in Italy, perhaps
hindered by Catholic conservatism:
the tampon, which Catholics early on
opposed in the U.S.A. and still do
to an extent in Latin America.
Tambrands kindly donated the
box as part of a large gift of ancient
menstrual products.
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Below:
The two largest sides are the
same although this side has
writing from Tambrands, which
donated
the box to this museum. The
cardboard box measures
2 3/8 x 2.5 x 7/8 " (6 x 6.5 x
2.3 cm).
Prezzo
means price,
not pretzel.
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Below:
The sides of the box are
identical.
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Below:
The two ends.
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NEXT:
tampon - instructions
See ads for Italian
menstrual pads - See also Saba Ad (Denmark) -
Brevia confetti
panty pads and tampons (1988,
France)
Dr. White's penis
tampon ad (United Kingdom) & Dr
White's 3-D glasses
ad - Spalt-Tabletten
pain pills (Germany, 1936) - Ria
panty pads with real pad (German)
©2007 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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