Caviar, Truffles and even oil paintings – until recently, in Germany many luxury goods were taxed at the reduced rate of only 7 percent while tampons and other female sanitary products attracted the top value added tax rate of 19 percent. The so-called tampon tax provoked international protests in recent years and has already been abolished in countries like Canada, Kenya and even some US-States. However, in Germany, tampons were still taxed with the highest rate and politicians refused to act. The Female Company, an online shop which sells organic female sanitary products wanted to take the lead in the feminist movement against the tampon tax.

The Female Company didn’t have a large budget. But we made the most of it! We sent 100 copies of 'The Tampon Book' to politicians and 100 copies to feminist influencers and journalists. The book was launched on the 16th of April 2019. We promoted it with an online film which was uploaded onto Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. The film directly promoted our petition as well as the book. We sold 1,000 copies of the book on the very first day – and reprinted a second edition. Originally planned to be a one-off publicity stunt, 'The Tampon Book' became so successful, that The Female Company decided to make it available in Germany’s largest drugstore dm. To further ignite the discussion, we sent the book to outspoken feminist celebrities like Alice Schwarzer and furthermore to female politicians to increase the pressure on the German parliament.