Ditties went on sale at drug and grocery stores across California in May; since the marketing campaign started in June, sales have risen 39 percent over their baseline, according to marketing director Dana Smith. Priced about the same as other leading brands, Ditties target 15- to 25-year-olds, with a secondary demographic of moms purchasing for themselves and their daughters.

The company is starting small in terms of advertising: handing out tampons at a No Doubt concert and at local high schools, running ads in Seventeen, Redbook and Teen Vogue. It is now testing a radio campaign, and in the fall, the Dittie line of tampons, pantyliners, and thong liners will be distributed nationally.

Ditties developed their particular voice in no fewer than 37 focus groups of teenagers, plus a survey conducted by AMP Insights, a division of the teen-marketing firm Alloy. "If your tampon was a celebrity, which celebrity would it be?" the survey asked 600 young women.

The No. 1 answer was Oprah Winfrey, because she's "powerful and no-nonsense," according to the survey results. The second choice was Angelina Jolie, because she's "her own person."

The 120 ditties -- written by copywriters and the six full-time Dittie staffers -- cover PMS, friendship, self-esteem, fashion, relationships, "famous women" messages and "girl code" messages. For instance: Celebrate Courtney Cox, the first woman to say the word "period" on TV. ... Girl code: Don't date your girlfriend's ex. They can occasionally be quite encounter-group-ish (Once a month, my power source will not be ignored); however, Carey says, the writers have rejected some ditties as too "negative," including Today's the day Im going to paint the town red!

Most of them do sound like something Oprah might say, wrapped up in a package that is très Jolie: the pastel boxes feature cartoons of young, smirking hotties of various races, rail thin, fashionable, arching their eyebrows -- all wicked ingénues in control.

"Ditties have a very spirited voice, youthful, fun," says Carey, who says she's planning a line of similar line of Dittie condoms. "It's sassy and classy, and we think that appeals to women of all ages."

"I'd buy them," says Christina Hernandez, 28, a public-health worker in San Francisco. "Some of the quotes are really good and make me laugh. And some are pretty bad -- like the jokes that used to come in gum wrappers."

But Oona Newman, a 27-year-old waitress, also from San Francisco, says she won't be buying Ditties anytime soon. "They're offensive!" she says. "These pictures on the box, these perfect women ... It's just another thing making young girls think they have to be skinny and have clear skin -- even if they just want to use a tampon."

The small wads of cotton and paper used to make tampons literally cost pennies; the product is sold at many, many times the production cost. Much of the difference goes to marketing costs, and while shame has usually done the trick, Dittie will see whether an avowed policy of "kicking taboos to the curb" will be as effective. After all, 20 million people watch "Oprah" every week.

"Aside from the little encouraging sayings, these aren't too different from what has come before," says Finley, the museum director. "But if they can help one girl or woman feel better, or accept menstruation better, I'm for them."

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