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 page
As One Girl to Another (complete
booklet, 1940, Kotex, U.S.A.) - Teacher's kit
(complete, early 1950s, Personal Products Corp.,
U.S.A.) - Shame in menstrual hygiene. A very early Tampax ad (1936)
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)
And read Lynn Peril's series about these
and similar booklets!
 
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The first real woman in a menstrual hygiene ad (Kotex): Lee Miller
In order to make some money after arriving in New York, the young Lee Miller made stock photos for the famous American
photographer Edward Steichen. Steichen sold
some to Kotex, which put one into the first menstrual hygiene ad (above)
ever to show a real person; it ran from July
1928 into 1929. America, and Miller, were horrified. No
decent woman would associate herself publicly with menstruation!
But by December 1928 Miller was enjoying her fame, and left with a girl
friend to Paris, where she met the Surrealist painter and photographer Man Ray; they became lovers, and Ray made some great
pictures of Miller.
Her association with photography probably began with the nude photographs
her father made of her when she was a teenager. Much later Miller became
a great World War II photographer in Germany.
But probably the first famous person to appear in menstrual hygiene
ads, in distinction to someone who only later became famous, was the Olympic
gymnast Cathy Rigby in the 1970s, who appeared
in many Stayfree ads. She also appeared nude doing a split on a balance
beam in Sports Illustrated, so she was willing
to take chances! She still makes ads today, although not for menstrual hygiene.
See also here for more about Miller, Rigby,
and others.
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As One Girl to Another (complete
booklet, 1940, Kotex, U.S.A.) - Teacher's kit
(complete, early 1950s, Personal Products Corp.,
U.S.A.) - Shame in menstrual hygiene. A very early Tampax ad (1936)
© 1998 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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