See ads for menarche-education booklets: Marjorie May's Twelfth Birthday (Kotex, 1933), Tampax tampons (1970, with Susan Dey), Personal Products (1955, with Carol Lynley), and German o.b. tampons (lower ad, 1970s)
See also the booklets How shall I tell my daughter? (Modess, various dates), Growing up and liking it (Modess, various dates), and Marjorie May's Twelfth Birthday (Kotex, 1928).
And read Lynn Peril's series about these and similar booklets!
See more Kotex items: First ad (1921) - ad 1928 (Sears and Roebuck catalog) - Lee Miller ads (first real person in amenstrual 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 pag
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.

Lucky Strike cigarettes ad, 1933

I found the ad below on the other side of the Phantom Kotex ad; it's from an unknown magazine, with copyrighted ads dated 1933.

Someone explained to me that as a diversion from Americans' sorrows from the Depression in the 1930s, Hollywood made movies featuring people dressed as if they had all the money in the world. Here are more Depression-era Americans living in a dream world, maybe to escape from menstruation as well as poverty.

Readers could smile at the couple below making diamonds and gold out of smoke (look at the enlargement at the bottom of the page); the rich could do anything they wanted.

Howard Chandler Christy, who painted the picture below, was one of several illustrators known to most Americans of this era - can you name an illustrator of today? - that included James Montgomery Flagg (of "I Want YOU For [the] U.S. Army" poster fame) and J. C. Leyendecker, who created the fabulous Arrow shirt illustrations.

The two people below have faces common to illustration of the time, but note the feminine eyes and mouth of the man.

By the way, readers had to turn the magazine sideways to read the ad, which ran sitting on the right end.

Another BTW: ever hear of the Shifters? I didn't either until I read the New York Times article "A Ponzi Scheme for Flappers" about a nutty American fad 11 years before this ad.

 

 

The smoke forms an engagement ring, at right, and a wedding ring. The guy's good, especially puffing with his mouth shut!
But is he, um, just blowing smoke about marriage? "Forever and ever . . " Yeh, right. Watch out, lady!

See a 1920s ad for Old Dutch Cleanser, a further funny digression from the theme of this Web site.

See ads for menarche-education booklets: Marjorie May's Twelfth Birthday (Kotex, 1933), Tampax tampons (1970, with Susan Dey),
Personal Products (1955, with Carol Lynley), and German o.b. tampons (lower ad, 1981)
See also the booklets How shall I tell my daughter? (Modess, various dates), Growing up and liking it (Modess, various dates),
and Marjorie May's Twelfth Birthday (Kotex, 1928).
And read Lynn Peril's series about these and similar booklets!
See another ad for As One Girl to Another (1942), and the booklet itself.
© 1999 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