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
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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!
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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.
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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.
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© 2006 Harry Finley. It is illegal to
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