See early tampoms Dale,
Wix and B-ettes and a bunch of other
earlier ones.
See San-Nap-Pak sanitary napkin ads from 1932 and 1945 and Ads for teenagers. See
the roughly contemporary Cashay
tampon, box, instructions. (Procter & Gamble
donation, 2001), and
Dale (U.S.A.,
1930s?-1940s?) Tampons, box, instructions.
(Procter & Gamble donation, 2001)
And, of course, the first Tampax AND - special
for you! - the American fax tampon,
from the early 1930s, which also came in bags.
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).
|
The senior cat: Max C. Padd, the Distinguished
Service Institutional Wallace C.
Meyer Memorial Pouncer at the Museum
of Menstruation
(Max was born in 1994
and died 7 August 2008. The
following was written mostly in
1998, the last year I had the museum
open.)
|
 |
Well, speaking of Mack C. Padd, or MaxiMUM, I
just happen
to have this photo in my wallet!
Yes, THIS
is the Distinguished
Service
Institutional Wallace C. Meyer
Memorial Pouncer at the Museum of
Menstruation, coolly sizing
you up in his snappy FleaFree
collar! (His title is a professorial
rank equivalent; in this photo the
tyke, in the first bloom of youth, had
assistant professor status).
No one has
EVER seen a mouse (or an alligator;
a 1996 visitor to MUM feared
alligators would get her somehow) in
the Museum of Menstruation,
perhaps due to the tireless - no,
that's stretching it; how 'bout patient -
efforts of this fleet-of-foot
feline, portrayed at left at the peak
of kittenhood. Isn't he cute??
Now a 12-pound bruiser, he
in no way reflects the virtues of the
genius for whom his position is named,
the go-for-broke ad man Wallace C. Meyer,
the director
of the first Kotex
advertising campaign, in 1921!
|
Meyer's wonderful efforts can be
examined at MUM, which holds copies of
the many documents and ads he
deposited at the State Historical
Society of Wisconsin (Meyer graduated
from journalism school at the
University of Wisconsin). The "father"
of American advertising, Albert
Lasker, who also endowed the
Mary and Albert Lasker Award in
medicine, the highest award in America
for medicine, later took over the
Kotex account and devised a way to spare
women the necessity of speaking to a
clerk when asking for Kotex.
Kotex's sales shot up!
Lasker, who owned some radio
stations, insisted that they use the
word "cancer" when speaking about the
disease, thus breaking the taboo on
the word on American airwaves. He also
broadcast the first soap opera.
And he gave today's Planned
Parenthood of America its name.
He also hired men to remove the dew
from his estate lawn each morning,
using long poles. He didn't like
seeing blades of grass tipped over.
My last tidbit is this: Lasker was
in Johns Hopkins Hospital recovering
from psychological problems as the
negotiations for an important
advertising account were going on.
Reacting to an impasse, he checked
himself out, spent enough time to win
the account, and told the negotiators
that he now had to return to Johns
Hopkins to finish his nervous
breakdown.
You see, I didn't just want to show
you a picture of my cat after all.
(But while we're on the
subject: a girlfriend of one of my
nephews actually named him Mack C.
Padd; I didn't do it. Rather than call
out "Distinguished
Service Institutional Wallace C.
Meyer Memorial Pouncer!," or "Mack
C. Padd!" - what would the
neighbors think? - he goes by "Max."
Or "My Man.," "Mr. Cat,"
"Catty-Watty," "Fuzzy-Wuzzy,"
"Pussy-Wussy," "Cattykins,"
"Pussykins," "Maxy-Waxy," or - get
this - "Your Catcellency!" as
in, "You'd rather sleep in exactly
the spot I'm trying to sleep in, and
you want my covers? Yes, right
away, Your Catcellency!" And
I move.)
A car killed Max
(1994-2008), my first and
oldest cat, my favorite, in the
morning of 7 August 2008 two months
before his 14th birthday.
|
See San-Nap-Pak sanitary napkin
ads from 1932
and 1945
and Ads for
teenagers. See the roughly
contemporary Dale
tampon, and very early Tampax and fax.
© 1998 Harry Finley. It is
illegal to reproduce or distribute
work on this Web site in any manner or
medium without written permission of
the author. Please report suspected
violations to hfinley@mum.org
|
|