Okay, it’s no big secret that bloggers are often handed little goodies to blog about. It’s really a three-way beneficiary situation. You, the reader, get the dl on the goods/services we’ve had to painstakingly examine; we get something to write about (which is hard, especially daily) with the freedom to give an honest opinion; and companies get their product mentioned on the internet, for better or for worse.
In a recent case, it went a little bit like this:
Product Marketer: As you may have heard, OB Tampons is the only tampon made by women, for women…
Me: Okay, stop right there. I’m a trusty OB faithful. I totally get it. BUT– my roommate, NC, recently got like, twenty boxes of Playtex Sport Tampons, and she’s been raving. So I’ve decided to give those a whirl. If she says they’re magnificent, they must be.
PM: Well, I can send you a package of free OB tampons anyway, and can do what you wish with them – use them or hand them out to friends.
Me: I couldn’t possibly turn down being the Tampon Fairy. Send them to my boyfriend’s office!
Now, my period had not yet started at this point. I hadn’t had a chance to discover the terror that was to come from this new Playtex tampon I had been referred to. Also, I was unaware that my roommate would have the same experiences.
At first it was a welcomed change. I enjoyed the convenience of the Playtex applicator, however throwing out a small tupperware container worth of plastic seemed quite wasteful. I spent the majority of my light period wearing a slender, super-sized tampon. A little larger than the OB variety, slightly different, but nonetheless a pleasant experience.
Two or three days post-switch, I realized that regardless of how often I would take a bathroom break to check up, I was always leaking. Serious leaks. Sometimes major leaks. On a light period. So I highly suspect that this new brand had intensified my flow.
In a rush I ran to the laundry-closet in my boyfriend’s townhouse. I headed for the cute little reusable bag the agency had sent me and I grabbed an OB tampon. Insert, remove. Insert, remove. It was all back to normal. I was no longer in complete paranoia.
I was back on my OB. I appreciated the lessoning of guilt in the plastic applicator department. Always may be the ones to have bought this slogan, but with OB I’m having a “happy period.” Paying less for my tampons also makes for a happy period. That’s necessary money I could be spending to keep myself well caffeinated. (Not a joke) (Well, kind of)
