Are
you in the know?
GREAT BOOKLET (U.S.A., Kotex napkins
and belts, 1956)
Many
more Are you
in the know? ads
& all ads for teenage girls
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MUSEUM OF MENSTRUATION AND WOMEN'S
HEALTH
Are you in
the know?
(November 1945, The American Girl
magazine)
Ad for Kotex menstrual napkins
teaching etiquette to teenage girls right
after World War II
People often enjoy these funny
ads more than other ads for
menstrual products. Radio programs
of the era - I listen to them on
WAMU, Washington, D.C. - often
have similar language, a zippy, rhyming
rhythm; great fun.
The advice you read here
reflects a much more formal era, in
spite of the zippiness.
Kids - as
pure and white as a fresh Kotex
- dressed up, and behaving the
right way was more important. And
this was before women's
liberation.
Teenagers from a yet earlier
era made fun of their
parents' old-fashioned ways in
funny ads which seem heavier
handed than the ads below.
The
characters were always white except for the
few servants in the well-off
places these teenagers sometimes
visited (see the booklet). And they were
SLIM.
About the
man
who drew these ads (I plagiarize
myself from here):
Irving
Nurick (1894-1963)
illustrated [these ads as well
as ads for other companies] as
he did the whole "Are you in the
know?" series. His girls and
boys are usually blonde, slender
and baby faced. No one's poor -
although they may be short of
money now and then since they're
dependent on allowances from
their parents. (See another feminine
ideal from decades
earlier.)
I wonder how much Kotex
coached the artist in creating
his WASP (White Anglo Saxon
Protestant) kids. "Irving
Nurick" doesn't sound like a
WASP name. He illustrated other
companies' ads from at least the
1940s on and nailed the
ideal American teenager for
that era. But Kotex
(and its main competitor Modess)
had usually advertised to a
middle-class-and-above clientele
anyway; that would continue for
the next couple decades.
The text, as always, was
sprinkled with funny slang and
solutions to teenagers'
problems. One answer to one
problem was always Kotex.
Notice the
colors, black and blue
- Kotex
blue.
Enjoy!
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Below:
The ad forms 2/3 of the page
horizontally.
Sample language: DROON
(first situation), DRIPPING LITTLE
PAWS (second).
Bottom:
"Si, si to all 3. Copy this
chick for whom the camera clicks .
. . ." (reference to
Hemingway's For Whom the Bell
Tolls (1940), which kids
might have been reading in high
school English.)
Does it get
better than this?
Yes, it does.
Keep clicking on the NEXT below
the images for the third ad
(Dec. 1946).
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Below:
I wanted especially to show you
the record
player, a rarity today.
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NEXT Nov. '45, Dec '45, Dec. '46 Many more Are you in the know? ads & all ads for
teenage girls.
Are you in the
know? GREAT BOOKLET (Kotex napkins and belts, 1956)
© 2008 Harry Finley. It is illegal to
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