More Camelia ads:
1920s (Germany), 1930s (Germany), 1952 (Australia), 1970s (France), 1990 (Germany) - Underpants directory
What did European and American women use for menstruation in the
19th century and before?
Ads for teens (see also introductory
page for teenage advertising): Are
you in the know? (Kotex
napkins and Quest napkin powder, 1948, U.S.A.),
Are you in the know? (Kotex napkins, 1953, U.S.A.),
Are you in the know? (Kotex napkins and belts, 1964,
U.S.A.), Freedom (1990, Germany), Kotex
(1992, U.S.A.), Pursettes (1974, U.S.A.), Pursettes
(1974, U.S.A.), Saba (1975, Denmark)
More ads for teens: See
a Modess True or False? ad in
The American Girl magazine, January 1947, and actress Carol Lynley in "How Shall I
Tell My Daughter" booklet ad (1955) - Modess . . . . because ads (many
dates).
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The influence of the World War II on German
products:
Ad for Camelia menstrual pads (1940/41);
underpants made from American sugar sacks
(1945/46)
The war changed German advertising and
created shortages of products, as it did in
America, Japan and elsewhere.
The ad below is a bit more serious than an
American Kotex ad from the war era (1943, Kotex), but
both show patriotism. As it happens, both
companies, Kotex and Camelia, sold the first
widely successful disposable pads in their
respective nations and probably led other
companies in sales during this war.
Curiously, both companies packed their pads
in blue boxes
(see a discussion
of blue in the 1927 Gilbreth report to
Johnson & Johnson) and both boxes often
came plainly wrapped to their customers. Until
about 1950 Germans found a slip of paper in
the Camelia box that they could give the
clerk; it read, "Please give me a discreetly
wrapped box of Camelia." Modess pads, in the
U.S.A., included a similar
slip in their ads that women cut out and
gave to the clerk.
To save materials, the government asked
women to save the Camelia boxes so they could
be refilled. After the war, in 1946/47, women
could get pads only by giving the clerk one
kilogram - 2.2 pounds - of old paper, since
manufacturers had stopped making pads. One
woman recalled that she and her office mates
in the American military government exchanged
documents from their filing cabinets for pads
at the drug store since old paper was hard to
find.
The shortage of pads in Japan after the war
allowed unions to legally negotiate leave from
work for women during menstruation, which some
companies still permit. A Japanese woman
studying at the University of Illinois sent
this museum her paper about menstrual leave in
Japan.
The pictures, below, and much of the
information, above, come from Zur Geschichte der
Unterwäsche. 1700-1960. Eine Ausstellung des
Historischen Museums Frankfurt 28. April bis
28. August 1988, by Almut Junker and
Eva Stille; FfM, Germany (Historisches Museum)
1988, the catalog of an exhibit about the
history of underclothing in the city
historical museum of Frankfurt am Main,
Germany, in 1988.
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Above:
Ad from the magazine Mode und Wäsche,
1940/41, for Camelia menstrual pads.
The text reads (my translation):
Always ready for duty
[reflecting the German military usage of einsatzbereit,
meaning ready for
combat]
the German woman masters the most difficult
duties. No one will ever notice that she's
not completely at her best, because today's
Camelia protection gives her more safety and
and freshness and offers good protection.
The Camelia output of pads covers her needs.
Camelia, the ideal disposable
[Reform] menstrual pad.
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Above:
White underpants hand knitted from the fiber
of American sugar sacks, 1945/46 (in the City
Museum of Munich, photo from Zur Geschichte der
Unterwäsche. 1700-1960), showing the
make-do attitude of post-war Germany, and the
talent of a German woman.
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More Camelia ads:
1920s (Germany), 1930s
(Germany), 1952
(Australia), 1970s
(France), 1990
(Germany) - Underpants
directory
© 2001 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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