Box of 8 Modess tampons, Super

Box of 8 Modess tampons (1 tampon and insert remaining), Super, with gentle rounded tip, Personal Products Company, USA, 1972. No product information on packaging which is printed to appear gift-wrapped with ribbons and a white flower.

The packaging on this packet of tampons is ultra-discreet, a recognisable trait of Modess products.

The brand, launched by Johnson & Johnson in 1927, targeted a modest, ‘elegant’ consumer in their advertisements. To avoid the embarrassment of having to ask for ‘sanitary napkins’ (menstrual pads) over the pharmacy counter, the company printed silent purchase coupons in national magazines, which could be wordlessly exchanged for a box of Modess wrapped in brown paper.

Later marketing strategies continued the trend of explicitly mentioning menstruation, opting for the vaguer tagline “Modess…because” paired with glamourous images of models wearing designer gowns. Cecil Beaton took many of the photographs used in the campaign, which ran for three decades from the late 1940s.