Compare a French Modess ad, a German ad, and another French ad featuring just a man!
And see a Modess . . . . because pad dispenser from the Smithsonian Institution, in Washington, D.C. (U.S.A.).
See a prototype of the first Kotex ad.
See more Kotex items: 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
Ads for the Kotex stick tampon (U.S.A., 1970s) - a Japanese stick tampon from the 1970s.
Early commercial tampons - Rely tampon - Meds tampon (Modess)
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.

Modess . . . . because ad photo on playing cards (more such ads  2, 3)
1960?

The card deck was probably used as a gift to
promote Modess products to store owners.

Companies everywhere want to sell their products. But most sell them to intermediaries like stores, not directly to consumers

However, stores can't sell everything. Somebody must choose.

That's where these cards come in.

How seductive to retailers these little inducements were in Modess's case is probably unknown exactly, a common puzzle in advertising. But that advertising persists at all reflects companies' belief that it's worth it.

Cards also figure in a 1941 ad for archrival Kotex

Modess pads competed with Kotex from the 1920s. See an ad aimed at teenagers.

And see an advertising package urging dealers to sell Modess products.

I thank once again the generous Dutch contributor for these scans of his cards!

Below: The same fashion photo is on the back of each card.
Modess ran a long campaign showing high-fashion on
snooty-looking models. Is there a greater contrast between
the rarefied and the plebeian in this need for protection during menstruation?
A woman of the former class could use the pad without fear of ruining her clothing.
Or so the company hoped.

Below: The box holding the standard-size
cards
, 90 x 58mm. The cards' owner noted that
the box lacks any visual connection to Modess or
menstruation. Well, maybe red, also on the cards.

Below: Who would be interested in how much space Modess belts and
pads and tampons and underpants needed in stores? Store owners.
But would the owners play bridge, the word written on the front of the
box (right, at bottom)? Was that word designed to approach the social level
of haute couture?

Below: Was the cards model Dovima - Dorothy Virginia Margaret Juba? The New York Times in its obituary wrote that she was "the model whom [photographer] Richard Avedon called '' 'the most remarkable and unconventional beauty of her time' ''?
The model on the cards.
Dovima in 1954, magazine unknown. (Google images)

Below: This might also be Dovima on a Modess box for a belt designed to hold a menstrual pad. As a child sick in bed with rheumatic fever, she invented the name Dovima for an imaginary companion. More belts.


Hauteur versus the iconic gamine: Dovima and Audrey Hepburn  (Google images)

Pages 1, 2, 3 of Modess . . . . because ads

Compare a French Modess ad, a German ad, and another French ad featuring just a man!
And see a Modess . . . . because pad dispenser from the Smithsonian Institution.
© 2015 Harry Finley. It is illegal to reproduce or distribute work on
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