How to sell Kotex,
a page for trade
publications, probably early 1920s,
U.S.A., and "Your
Image is Your Fortune!," Modess sales-hints
booklet for stores, 1967 (U.S.A.).
Announcement to
retailers of the menstrual tampon "Playtex
Plus" pages 1
(cover) - 2
- 3 - 4 (back cover)
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
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THE MUSEUM OF MENSTRUATION AND WOMEN'S
HEALTH
Announcement
to retailers of the menstrual
tampon "Playtex Economy Pak"
(1975, U.S.A.)
Playtex did several things first
in the world of tampons - see
below - including two that got
people screaming: plastic
applicators and deodorant.
But Playtex appeared
before other tampons on
television, which might
have led to a more open discussion
of menstruation besides
distressing the male audience, a
good thing. Males
need to get used to talking
about it. That's part of
the problem. (But Kotex had been
on boxcars
- yes! - in the 1920s, a menstrual
cup decorated Times Square
in 1961, Olympic
gymnast Cathy Rigby promoted
Stafree pads on the radio in 1982,
the same place Procter &
Gamble gave the good and bad
news about Rely tampons in
1979 and 1980.)
It also colored at least part of
its boxes in red, I
think also an advance. Menstrual
products companies almost always
avoided that color (see an early
exception that proves the rule
as well as here);
Heavens, you couldn't remind women
of blood! But how 'bout brown and
yellow on toilet paper wrappers?
Oops, sorry, I mean bathroom
tissue, in America anyway. You
know, that soft paper you dry
yourself with after taking a bath?
Well, at least I do.
See also How to sell
Kotex, a page for trade
publications, probably early
1920s, U.S.A., and "Your Image is
Your Fortune!," Modess
sales-hints booklet for stores
similar to the one below, 1967
(U.S.A.).
I thank Tambrands, the former
maker of Tampax, for donating
this brochure to the museum.
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Below:
The cover (page 1) of the 4-page
brochure. It measures 8.5 x 11"
(21.5 x 27.8 cm) and is
medium-weight coated (glossy)
paper. Somebody at Tambrands
probably kept it in a 3-ring
binder, accounting for the holes
at the left side.
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Copyright Harry Finley 2007
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