See some Kotex first-campaign ads: general discussion and ad prototype - January 1921 - May 1921 - November 1921
See the Kotex stick tampon.
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
CONTRIBUTE to Humor, Words and expressions about menstruation and Would you stop menstruating if you could?
Some MUM site links:
homepage | MUM address & What does MUM mean? | e-mail the museum | privacy on this site | who runs this museum?? |
Amazing women! | the art of menstruation | artists (non-menstrual) | asbestos | belts | bidets | founder bio | Bly, Nellie | MUM board | books: menstruation and menopause (and reviews) | cats | company booklets for girls (mostly) directory | contraception and religion | costumes | menstrual cups | cup usage | dispensers | douches, pain, sprays | essay directory | extraction | facts-of-life booklets for girls | famous women in menstrual hygiene ads | FAQ | founder/director biography | gynecological topics by Dr. Soucasaux | humor | huts | links | masturbation | media coverage of MUM | menarche booklets for girls and parents | miscellaneous | museum future | Norwegian menstruation exhibit | odor | olor | pad directory | patent medicine | poetry directory | products, current | puberty booklets for girls and parents | religion | Religión y menstruación | your remedies for menstrual discomfort | menstrual products safety | science | Seguridad de productos para la menstruación | shame | slapping, menstrual | sponges | synchrony | tampon directory | early tampons | teen ads directory | tour of the former museum (video) | underpants & panties directory | videos, films directory | Words and expressions about menstruation | Would you stop menstruating if you could? | What did women do about menstruation in the past? | washable pads
Leer la versión en español de los siguientes temas: Anticoncepción y religión, Breve reseña - Olor - Religión y menstruación - Seguridad de productos para la menstruación.


The Museum of Menstruation and Women's Health

Kotex menstrual pad ad
June 1929, Pictorial Review, U.S.A.

Softness! What a thought!

But just wait a while for it to turn into a soggy mess. Then it hardens. Women would have to wait until the early 1930s for store-bought tampon saviors that some actresses and others had been making at home in order to make earning a living in front of an audience possible.

Kotex, of course, worked its magic through Cellucotton, which also comprised Kimberly-Clark's later Kleenex (1924).

People at Kotex - mostly men, naturally; see the board of directors for 1947  - possibly read the report (1927) that Dr. Lillian Gibreth made for Kotex's main competitor, Johnson & Johnson, because the ad states "corners are now rounded and tapered .... Layers of the filler are adjustable. ... And the gauze covering is rendered softer ...," all addressing complaints by the women Gilbreth surveyed.

Speaking of men and women and Kotex and advertising, read a man's rage at women's intruding into what he thought was just for males - the competent gender. That was 1949.  Have you heard these complaints today?

Look at the address at the bottom. This is just one of many Kotex Chicago pad and tampon addresses from the 1920s. Was Kotex playing hide and go seek?

Kotex was not the only company dispensing pads to the rest-room crowd. And Kotex had the guts to send its dispenser offer to TAMPAX! Whew!

Finally, to explain the added blue sky at the top of the page: Kotex blue was famous and a puzzle. Have you ever seen the blue liquid in menstruation advertising? It might have originated with the brand.
Below: The black-and-white ad measures 10 1/4 x 13 3/4" (about 26 x 34.9 cm).
Below: Look right above these words. See the patent number?
Well, through the magic of the Museum of Menstruation and Women's
Health you see the picture part of that patent below! OK, so it's through
the magic of the Web and the U.S. Patent Office. But I introduced you two!
It apparently shows how the company deodorized its pads.
(Read about the distressing engine of menstrual odor. It's menstrual
discharge plus - well, read.)
See some Kotex first-campaign ads: general discussion and ad prototype - January 1921 - May 1921 - November 1921

© 2015 Harry Finley. It is illegal to reproduce or distribute any
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