See more Kotex items: First ad (1921; scroll to bottom of page) - ad, 1928 (Sears and Roebuck catalog) - Lee Miller ads (first real person in a menstrual 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
The first Kotex magazine ad campaign
CONTRIBUTE to Humor, Words and expressions about menstruation and Would you stop menstruating if you could?
Some MUM site links:
homepageMUM 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.

 
The Museum of Menstruation and Women's Health

"Kotex completes Milady's toilette,
insuring perfect poise
"
Kotex ad, May, 1922
The Ladies Home Journal, U.S.A.

Do you still need to be convinced that Kotex targeted the
fancy readers of this magazine?

Does calling the American reader Milady as if she were an English noblewoman flatter her?

And toilette - no, not toilet - meant a cloth used to protect clothing as well as a dressing table covered with cloth (toile) and which might have held a mirror. The French association elevated the ad's tone, taking menstruation into a sophisticated realm of, yes, the upper middle class and above. Anything to take it out of the toilet!

The first Kotex magazine ad campaign.
Early 1920s Kotex ads for newspapers.
Display Kotex on the counter so women don't have to (blush) ask for it.
Kotex on the side of a train
Tampax gives dealers advice on how to display its tampons (1936)
Counter display for the Kotex tampon Fibs (1930s-40s)


Below: The full-page ad measures 11 x 14" (27.9 x 35.6 cm).

As in the 1921 ad Kotex is used as a plural - but
only once. I wonder when the singular triumphed.

"Best seller" first appeared in print in 1889 in the Kansas
Times & Star newspaper (Wikipedia).

How do you ask for menstrual pads when clerks hid
them behind counters
like most goods? Is the name, like Kotex,
important? 

See a 1930s Kotex from a vending machine.

Have a headache? Slap a wet Kotex on your forehead!
Why not? suggests the ad. Today rescue units sometimes
use Kotex to absorb blood.

So, what is birdseye?

Look at the Chicago address at the bottom: it's about 6 minutes by car today
from one of Kotex's first tampon addresses, 30 S. Clinton St. and 9 minutes from
another UrKotex tampon, 2014 W. Wabansia Ave!
Grab the
person nearest you and tell her (him?) that if you never want to see her again.

Even in a protective plastic folder the claws of
an evil cat ripped the corner.
In a catamenial catamaniacal moment?


 



























Below: Look at the broad white strokes on the dress - beautiful. (I'm a painter.)
Below: A Kotex dispenser peeks through the curtains
hiding (almost) the toilet from the toilette. How would that
conceal the - sorry to mention this! - sounds and smells?
What looks like plumbing for a toilet or bidet sits in the
lower right corner, speaking as we are of sitting.



See more Kotex items: First ad (1921; scroll to bottom of page) - ad, 1928 (Sears and Roebuck catalog) -
Lee Miller ads (first real person in a menstrual hygiene ad, 1928)

© 2014 Harry Finley. It is illegal to reproduce or distribute work on this Web site in any manner or
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