See some Kotex first-campaign ads: general discussion and
ad prototype - January
1921 - May 1921 - November 1921
See more Kotex items: First ad (1921) -
ad 1928 (Sears and
Roebuck catalog) - Marjorie
May's Twelfth Birthday (booklet for girls,
1928, Australian edition; there are many links
here to Kotex items) - 1920s booklet in Spanish
showing disposal
method - box
from about 1969 - Preparing
for
Womanhood (1920s, booklet for girls) - "Are
you in the know?" ads (Kotex) (1949)(1953)(1964)(booklet, 1956) - See
more ads on the Ads for
Teenagers main page
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Kotex doesn't
show! Three ads for Kotex
menstrual pads,
1927, 1932, 1955 (U.S.A.)
Women, at least in America, have
tried to conceal the fact that they
menstruate and certainly haven't
wanted anybody to see the pad they
were wearing. Kotex played to that in
many ads as did other companies. It's
one of the reasons tampons are so
popular. (Early manufacturers
sometimes called tampons internal sanitary
napkins, like here.
These three ads address women's fear
of being outed that they're
menstruating.
I truly believe that if women talked
openly among themselves and in front
of men about menstruation, and put pad
and tampon boxes in visible places at
their work place and at home most of
the silly shame about periods would
disappear. Men and women both think
there's a huge issue involved. There
isn't. The silence creates a false
delicacy. What's there to be ashamed
of?
Click on
the ads to get close-ups of the
pictures and text.
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Above:
January, 1927, the month the Gilbreth
report appeared, an attempt to create
a competitor for Kotex: Modess. See details.
Below:
July, 1932: "Phantom Kotex" ran
through another series of ads; see
another example here. See details.
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Above:
April, 1955: "Not a shadow of a doubt"
was a long ad Kotex campaign. See details.
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See some Kotex first-campaign ads: general discussion and
ad prototype - January
1921 - May 1921 - November 1921
© 1998 Harry Finley. It is illegal to
reproduce or distribute any
of the work on this Web site in any manner or
medium without
written permission of the author. Please report
suspected violations to hfinley@mum.org
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