Pad (menstrual napkin, towel) directory
MORE New Freedom (U.S.A.), an early beltless pad (by Kotex); box bears a copyright of 1970 - ad November 21, 1971, The Milwaukee Journal - ad using named person, 1978 - promotion leaflet (date unknown) - ad, 1985, showing disposal bag
Another Kimberly-Clark corporate history, Four Men and a Machine: Commemorating the Seventy-fifth
Anniversary of Kimberly-Clark Corporation (1947)
Corporate history of Tampax: Small Wonder: How Tambrands began, prospered, and grew (1986)

How Modess Sanitary Napkins Began: excerpts from"A Company That Cares: One Hundred Year Illustrated History of Johnson and Johnson"


"Cooperation" Excerpts (U.S.A., 1931-34)
Sometimes funny publication for Kimberly-Clark employees during the Great Depression

See covers of Growing Up and Liking It booklets - ads for teenagers
Read most of a 1928 Australian edition of Marjorie May's Twelfth Birthday. Marjorie May's Twelfth Birthday (1935) - Facts About Menstruation that every Woman should know (1936) - Marjorie May, introductory page, 1935 main page
Read Lynn Peril's series about these and similar booklets! And see the covers of the booklets How shall I tell my daughter?, Growing up and liking it, and Personal Digest; read the whole booklet As One Girl to Another (Kotex, 1940).
Marjorie May, three booklets, 1935 main page
See a Kotex ad advertising this booklet.
See 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
CONTRIBUTE to Humor, Words and expressions about menstruation and Would you stop menstruating if you could?
Some MUM site links:
homepage | LIST OF ALL TOPICS | 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

New Freedom towels (sanitary napkins) and pantie set (Kotex)
Ad in (magazine?/newspaper?) Fabulous 208 (United Kingdom, 10 February 1973)

Menstruation, Kotex, Cellucotton, menstrual hygiene, history, sanitary napkin, pad, panties, panty

The top text in the ad reads
"Confidence is knowing that nothing can possibly go wrong."

But something HAS gone wrong! A hawk-beaked monster wearing jeans has wrapped its wings around the presumably menstruating woman, who I guess is wearing the Kotex towel and pantie set - NOT the kind of protection she needs right now!

Judging by its talons and smile, she has only seconds to live! Soon we'll see just jeans, a fur coat, and a Kotex towel and pantie set strewn on the desolate (U. K.?) beach, the hideous raptor disappearing into the clouds bearing its bloody (in two ways), wriggling prey!

Wow, let me recover from writing that. Pretty good, huh? Publishers, wait your turn at hfinley@mum.org!

Phew, I've caught my breath.

Another Kotex ad presents a vastly different woman and a self-satisfied man.

And did you know that Kotex once peopled - er, personed - a series of ads with - gasp! - just a MAN?? Not in English, of course, but in Dutch. And the French, naturally, ran their own just-male menstrual ads.

Oh, wait, I just rediscovered on my own site an ad praising the MEN who helped the Mølnlycke pad company reach second place in sales in the Netherlands (1978)! I never know what I'll find on this site.


By the way, the Kotex-wearing model - who doesn't look very worried in spite of what I wrote - looks like the popular model who once appeared in a 1970s Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue - oops, now you know I once looked at the swimsuit issue! At least she seems to be on her element, a beach, although not the sunny place she once enjoyed.
Was she at the end of her career, washed up on the shore? Posing for Kotex could indicate that.

Posing for a Kotex ad (unintentionally) at the start of her career drove the first actual person in a menstrual products ad from the U.S. to France and to fame.
Another New Freedom towel and pantie set, U.K. (no date). More menstrual ads from the United Kingdom.
MORE underpants & panties.

Read early articles about Cellucotton, the wadding inside a Kotex pad that the company created.
First Kotex ad in a magazine (1921; scroll to bottom of page)
Very early newspaper ads.
I thank the donor of the ad!


Below: The page measures 8 11/16 x 11 5/8" (22.8 x 29.7 cm).
See a 1970s Kotex "panti" with a similar gripper.

End  |  U.K. menstrual ad potpourri beginning (Dr White's bus - Dr White's dancing - Lil-lets tampons school - Dr. White's band - Kotex Simplicity bicycle -
Kotex faces - Kotex New Freedom towel & pantie - Dr White's attic - Kotex Simplicity bike - Kotex Simplicity boat] ||
See a 3-D Dr White's ad and an ad contest for Dr White's. And a penis-tampon ad.
Underpants & panties directory - Pad directory - Tampon directory
© 2011 Harry Finley. It is illegal to reproduce or distribute work on this Web site in any manner or
medium without written permission of the author. Please report suspected violations to hfinley@mum.org