Are you in the know?
GREAT BOOKLET
(U.S.A., Kotex napkins and belts, 1956)
Many more Are
you in the know? ads
& all ads for teenage girls
 
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MUSEUM OF MENSTRUATION AND WOMEN'S HEALTH
Are you in the know?
(November 1945, The American Girl magazine)
Ad for Kotex menstrual napkins (pads, but Kotex also made tampons,
belts, panties &
napkin deodorant powder)
teaching etiquette to teenage girls right
after World War II
People seem to enjoy these funny ads more than most other ads for menstrual
products. Radio programs of the era - I listen to them on WAMU, Washington,
D.C. - often have similar language, a zippy, rhyming
rhythm - great fun.
The advice you read here reflects a much more formal
era, in spite of the zippiness. Kids - as pure
and white as a fresh Kotex - dressed up, and behaving the right way
was more important. And this was before women's liberation.
Teenagers from a yet earlier era made fun
of their parents' old-fashioned ways in funny ads which seem heavier handed
than the ads below.
The characters were always white except for the few servants in the well-off places these
teenagers sometimes visited (see the booklet). And they were SLIM.
About the man who
drew these ads (I plagiarize myself from here):
Irving Nurick (1894-1963) illustrated
[these ads as well as ads for other companies] as he did the whole "Are
you in the know?" series. His girls and boys are usually blonde, slender
and baby faced. No one's poor - although they may be short of money now
and then since they're dependent on allowances from their parents. (See
another feminine ideal from decades earlier.)
I wonder how much Kotex coached the artist in creating his WASP (White
Anglo Saxon Protestant) kids. "Irving Nurick" doesn't sound like
a WASP name. He illustrated other companies' ads from at least the 1940s
on and nailed the ideal American teenager for that
era. But Kotex (and its main competitor Modess) had usually advertised
to a middle-class-and-above clientele anyway; that would continue for the
next couple decades.
The text, as always, was sprinkled with funny slang and solutions to
teenagers' problems. One answer to one problem was always Kotex.
Notice the colors, black and blue - Kotex
blue.
Enjoy!
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Below: The ad forms 2/3 of the page horizontally.
Sample language: DROON (first situation),
DRIPPING LITTLE PAWS (second).
Bottom: "Si, si to all 3. Copy
this chick for whom the camera clicks . . . ." (reference to
Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls, which kids might have been reading
in high school English.)
Does it get better than this?
Yes, it does. Keep clicking on the NEXT below the images for the third ad
(Dec. 1946).
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Below: I wanted especially to show you
the record player, a rarity today.
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NEXT Nov. '45, Dec '45, Dec. '46 Many more Are you in the know? ads & all ads for teenage girls.
Are you in the know?
GREAT BOOKLET
(Kotex napkins
and belts, 1956)
© 2008 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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