Three puberty & menstruation booklets from Kotex, 1968
And, of course, the first Tampax
AND - special for you! - the American fax
tampon, from the early 1930s, which also came in bags.
See a Modess True or False? ad
in The American Girl magazine, January 1947, and actress Carol
Lynley in "How Shall I Tell My Daughter" booklet ad (1955)
- Modess . . . . because ads (many dates).
 
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Tell It Like Is, Kotex menstrual (stick)
tampon booklet (1974, U.S.A.)
Kotex probably pioneered the commercial booklet for pad and tampon users,
especially girls. Marjorie May's Twelfth Birthday
(1920s) seems to be its first booklet; it went through many editions in
several countries. Later booklets were more colloquial.
Like most such booklets (see a list) they promoted
their makers' products. The booklet below seems directed at an older audience
and dispenses with the story telling of most earlier productions.
The stick tampon promoted here used a wooden
stick as an applicator, thus being biodegradable and ecologically sound,
in contrast to the tampons that used plastic applicators (for example, Meds, by Modess; Playtex and others) and Tampax's
cardboard tube. Japan also made at least
one stick tampon but with a Japanese twist, as
so often with these interesting people.
Kotex also played a mysterious (to me, anyway) role in the earliest
tampons. According to its instructions, a tampon called Nunap
was made of Cellucotton, which Kimberly-Clark invented and made into Kotex.
Could this have been the earliest K-C foray into tampons? I think so.
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Below: Front cover. The scanning malformed
the letters. Blue has always been associated with Kotex. See an early blue box and comments from a famous
woman.
The booklet measures 3 3/8 x 6 1/8" (about 8.6 x 15.6 cm).
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Below: Back cover.
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© 2007 Harry Finley. It is illegal to reproduce or distribute
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