See some Kotex first-campaign ads: general
discussion and ad prototype - January
1921 - May 1921 - November
1921
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
 
|
 
Newspaper ads
for Kotex (and other) menstrual pads, 1920s (U.S.A.)
Order your embarrassing menstrual supplies by phone
Women sometimes hesitated to buy menstrual supplies because other people
would see them. But the idea of putting boxes on
a counter to avoid having to speak to the clerk could frighten customers,
even when she could drop money into a coin box. The Sears catalog helped
by allowing women to order by mail (this Wix tampon
ad mentions embarrassment). The 1927 Gilbreth report to Johnson & Johnson
lets college girls tell their stories.
Local stores sometimes allowed customers to call in orders, as the ads
below testify.
I again thank the industrious and generous genealogy researcher for
these ads!
|
Above: from The Washington Post, June 30,
1923. See sanitary belts, Curads
pads, a sanitary apron, ad for Hickory
sanitary belt, a box and pad from the 1930s and
a sanitary step-in. "Sanitary" in this
context almost always means "menstrual."
"Shop Unique," means I guess
a unique shop but in a suspiciously French word order, probably to dignify
it.
Right: Lincoln [Nebraska] Star, March 27,
1927; the store advertised is Rudge & Guenzel.
|
 |
|
Below: as a bonus, not connected with phone
orders, this ad from Sheboygan [Wisconsin] Press, June 21, 1921. Early Kotex
ads often used this picture of the World War I nurse writing home about
what great menstrual pads Kimberly-Clark bandages make. Other
nurse poses appear in the earliest Kotex ads. Kotex did spread quickly;
see these disposal instructions in Spanish.
|
 |
© 2006 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
|