Families have likely noticed the effects of inflation on their weekly grocery budgets. Everything seems to be more expensive in recent years. But in addition to raising prices, many companies are also shrinking the products themselves, which saves them money, but it's often at a cost to the customer. This phenomenon is referred to as shrinkflation.
Unfortunately, consumers have noticed shrinkflation affecting their feminine hygiene products, including disposable pads and tampons. One TikTok user decided to call out the Tampax brand specifically for allegedly making its tampons smaller without telling consumers. The sneaky marketing move has reportedly even prompted teens and women to think their periods had changed, prompting them to seek advice from a medical professional.
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Melissa Simonsen called out tampon shrinkflation in a now-viral TikTok video.
On April 26, Melissa declared via TikTok, "Shame on you @Tampax US!" while including the hashtags #corporategreed, #shinkflation, #marketing, and more.
The video has since attracted more than 2.3 million views and over 293,000 likes. Not to mention, thousands of women in the comments confirmed they, too, noticed a stark difference.
She proceeded to call out the brand for shrinking its products.
In her video, Melissa showed a Tampax chart showing what menstrual flows aligned with which absorbency levels. "I'm calling you out, Tampax," she said. "These sizes that you normalized so that we all as women know about which ones we use for about which period of time during our periods, these are not accurate anymore because you shrunk them."
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Melissa noted that women thought they were experiencing medical issues because they kept bleeding through the products.
"Women have actually sought doctor's appointments thinking something is wrong with their bodies," she pointed out. "Because you did this and you didn't tell anyone. Shame on you."
While most women and girls know to seek medical advice if there's a change in their periods, a change in the absorbency or feminine hygiene products could make them think there's something wrong when there is not.
Additionally, she compared Tampax Pearl and Tampax Radiant.
In addition to addressing shrinkflation, Melissa also alleged that the only difference between Tampax Pearl (which came out in 2002) and the more expensive Tampax Radiant (which came out in 2012) is the packaging, which now features a "quiet and easy to open re-sealable wrapper that makes them clean and discreet during disposal."
"The main, main difference is that they marketed Radiant for teens and girls who are at school … and like, 'Hey, you know, it can be embarrassing, here's an easy way to hide it so it's in a more compact thing to carry and you can easily dispose of it if you don't have something handy," she explained.
"They could have just taken the superior wrapper and applied it to their Pearl products, which already advertised toward women and young ladies who wanted to be discreet and wanted to be able to do normal life stuff even when they're on their period."
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In the comments, women vented that they have also noticed the tampon shrinkflation.
TikTok users sounded off in the comments about tampon shrinkflation.
One person wrote: "It's not just Tampax. I realized lately I thought I was bleeding more. Found an older tampon and realised the difference is massive."
"Plus, they now put 36 instead of 40 in their large box and 2 less in the small box!" another woman commented.
"Pads have also gotten shorter, thinner, and don't stick AT ALL and I thought I was just going insane," yet another TikTok user pointed out.
Meanwhile, someone else commented, "Omg! I thought it was weird I was going thru supers so quickly! This makes sense!!" while another echoed, "I've been bleeding through supers every couple of hours and now I know why."
*Disclaimer: The advice on CafeMom.com is not a substitute for consultation with a medical professional or treatment for a specific condition. You should not use this information to diagnose or treat a health problem without consulting a qualified professional. Please contact your health-care provider with questions and concerns.
