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 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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Tux menstrual tampon (U.S.A., 1930s)
Box and newspaper ad (1936, at top of page)
Early tampons can surprise you. Fax had
no string or applicator; Wix came in a beautiful box
that could have held candy. (Later ones can too. See purple covering and
blue string on a Tampax sound-a-like.)
Tux - does the name come from tuck? Tuxedo? - has sharply pointed plugs
(the part that absorbs menstrual fluid) as if someone had carved them like
a stick. Although the tampon looks crude - see a Turkish
imitator of Tampax for crudity - they're at least all alike.
And the company had a surprising idea about advertising them!
Procter & Gamble kindly donated the box and contents as part
of a gift of scores of menstrual products. A genealogy researcher generously
donated the and many similar ones from early newspapers.
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Look at the first ad under PERSONAL The
ad comes from The Oshkosh [Wisconsin] Northwestern newspaper, p. 14, dated
September 1, 1936. Note the "Kerosene operated Electrolux refrigerators"
in the ad above it. I wonder how electricity figured in its operation given
"Electro-."
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The box measures 3 x 2.5 x 0.87" (c. 7.5 x 6.5 x 2.1 cm) and Procter
& Gamble sent it to me beaten up, as shown, including the crayon (?)
markings. The store Marshall Field & Company, which Macy's took over
in 2006, was a famous Chicago landmark. Twenty cents for three tampons -
almost seven cents a 'pon - was expensive. Other Thirties tampons in MUM
cost roughly two to four cents each. The box holds
no instructions - possibly lost, reflecting the condition of the box.
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See below for the other four sides.
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These words betray Tux's age; women hardly knew what menstrual tampons
were in the early-to-mid 1930s. Read more
about the word and some odd uses before the 1930s.
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NEXT: the open display box & tampons. 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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