<a href="http://cbxblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/RachelK.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-3065" title="RachelK" src="/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/RachelK.jpg" alt="" width="40" height="40" /></a> By Rachel K.<a href="http://cbxblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/ob-free-tampon-sample.jpg"><img class="size-full wp-image-3063 aligncenter" title="ob-free-tampon-sample" src="/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/ob-free-tampon-sample.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="300" /></a>
Last week I went to my local Walgreens to buy tampons, and was stunned to see my favorite brand, <a href="http://www.obtampons.com/en/index">OB, back on the shelves</a>. Several months ago, Johnson &amp; Johnson mysteriously pulled OB products without so much as a peep about why they were doing so. The brand I’d been so loyal to since high school was gone virtually overnight.

I wasn’t the only one bummed out by <a href="http://prescriptions.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/12/22/the-case-of-the-missing-o-b-tampons/">OB’s disappearance</a>. Thousands of women took to the Internet to bemoan this occurrence (and demand an explanation), and soon boxes of the product were selling on <a href="http://shop.ebay.com/i.html?_from=R40&amp;_trksid=p5197.m570.l1311&amp;_nkw=ob+tampons&amp;_sacat=See-All-Categories">eBay</a> for nearly three times their original cost. So when I saw OB Tampons back on shelves, my first thought was, “Well, should I really be buying a product that was pulled when I have no idea why?” But I ignored the voice in my head screaming “No!” simply because I was thrilled to have the brand back. And so I purchased a box, brought it home, and decided to let sleeping dogs lie.

Yes, I am SO brand loyal to OB that I was willing to overlook the fact that the product might have been tampered with and/or hazardous simply because I felt other products on the market weren’t nearly as good.

But because I am the type of neurotic who makes Woody Allen look stoic, my brand loyalty lasted for all of an hour. Soon I was back on the Internet, looking to see if J&amp;J had offered an explanation for their actions, lest I be giving myself terminal cancer by using the tampons. Zilch. Nada. Nothing online that offered any insights into the company’s actions. And so I turned a blind eye and kept the product. And will go ahead and buy it again.

In an article Gregg recently penned entitled, <a href="http://www.mpdailyfix.com/you-never-write-you-never-call/">“You Never Write, You Never Call: Some Advice from Mom to J&amp;J,”</a> he advised the company on how to heal the wounds of the past year (in which it recalled 22 products, including more than 300 million bottles of medicine) by remaining true to its company credo of honesty. Johnson &amp; Johnson still hasn’t come out and explained why OB Tampons disappeared from shelves, and they may never. But my guess is that the company’s silence is not deterring women like me from buying the products. Which is shocking, yes… but also a testament to the strength of the brand. <strong> </strong>