See Kotex ad with a man and no woman from
the Netherlands
Compare the American "Modess, because . .
." ads, a French Modess ad, a French
ad featuring just a man!, and
ads for teens.
See 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 page
 
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Plastic Bag from a German Drug Store
In the early 1990s the clerk at the checkout register of a Müller's
drugstore (a Drogerie, which doesn't fill prescriptions;
that's done in an Apotheke) in Heidelberg,
Germany, slapped this plastic shopping bag down (for 10 Pfennige, about
seven cents at the time) on the counter for me to put my soap and toothbrush
in. In many stores in Germany, the customer fills her (his) own bag, which
he (she) often brings with him (her).
But I doubt that a customer in America could ever get a bag with Kotex advertised on the side (but see what Kotex once did!) - or would want one! - which is basically the case
here. Freedom (see a German ad,
American ads for Kotex tampons, and a box of tampons of the French version) is a line of menstrual
pads, tampons and panty pads made by Kimberly-Clark, which also makes Kotex in the U.S.A.
Many Germans understand American English, and many young Germans regard
it and America as "cool" and modern - young,
as a Swedish girl once explained to me (she had just returned from a summer
in France, which she thought was "old"), thus maybe explaining
its use here.
Did 100 Americans understand Fahrvergnügen
("driving enjoyment") in the Volkswagen
ad campaign of about a decade ago in the U.S.A?
The words under "Freedom" mean - get ready for this
- Menstrual hygiene that's fun! (The
last words mean "pads, tampons, panty pads.") Those Germans
will stop at nothing for a good time!
At least that's better than the gloomy view most people and cultures hold of menstruation.
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© 1999 Harry Finley. It is illegal to reproduce or distribute any
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