See more Kotex items: First ad
(1921; scroll to bottom of page) - ad, 1928
(Sears and Roebuck
catalog) - Lee
Miller ads (first real person in a
menstrual hygiene ad, 1928) - Marjorie May's Twelfth
Birthday (booklet for girls, 1928,
Australian edition; there are many links
here to Kotex items) - Preparing for
Womanhood (1920s, booklet for girls;
Australian edition) - 1920s booklet in
Spanish showing disposal
method - box
from about 1969 - "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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The Museum of Menstruation and
Women's Health
"At the
World's Busiest Corner"
State and Madison, Chicago
Kotex window
display, early 1920s?
Sheet probably for a trade publication
In 1927, reporting
to the makers of Kotex competitor
Modess, efficiency expert Lillian
Gilbreth wrote of the obstacles
surrounding the selling of menstrual
pads and how to get around them.
Actually, how to get around Kotex,
which was made of wood pulp (Cellucotton)
rather than traditional cotton
or wool and was probably leading the
pad pack.
Not an appropriate way to describe
Kotex, but its advertising was in your face
from the beginning, overcoming
objections from prominent
women's magazines. It's
strange that it
took so long for other products
to show themselves in extremely
public places.
Maybe it was this bold start that
kept it number 1 for so long. Kotex meant
sanitary napkin just as
it did for my male nextdoor
neighbor when the museum was in my house.
(Yes, there's a story there.)
Page below: From a photocopy
of the item in the papers of
Wallace Meyer at the State
Historical Society of Wisconsin
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Below:
The window at left
shows Kotex boxes, what looks
like a blown-up illustration of 2
women, some cardboard signs and
maybe unfurled stars of the show, the
pads themselves flying
their long
tabs that attached to belts.
The photocopy, before trimming,
measured about 10 1/2 x 11 1/2"
(26.7 x 29.2 cm), giving a rough
estimate of the original.
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See more Kotex items: First ad
(1921; scroll to bottom of page) - ad, 1928
(Sears and Roebuck
catalog) -
Lee Miller ads
(first real person in a menstrual hygiene
ad, 1928)
© 2014 Harry Finley.
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