See some Kotex first-campaign ads: general discussion and ad prototype - January 1921 - May 1921 - November 1921See the Kotex stick tampon.See more Kotex items: First ad (1921) - 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 pageCONTRIBUTE to Humor, Words and expressions about
menstruation and Would
you stop
menstruating if you
could?
|
|
| Softness! What a
thought! But just wait a while for it to turn into a soggy mess. Then it hardens. Women would have to wait until the early 1930s for store-bought tampon saviors that some actresses and others had been making at home in order to make earning a living in front of an audience possible. Kotex, of course, worked its magic through Cellucotton, which also comprised Kimberly-Clark's later Kleenex (1924). People at Kotex - mostly men, naturally; see the board of directors for 1947 - possibly read the report (1927) that Dr. Lillian Gibreth made for Kotex's main competitor, Johnson & Johnson, because the ad states "corners are now rounded and tapered .... Layers of the filler are adjustable. ... And the gauze covering is rendered softer ...," all addressing complaints by the women Gilbreth surveyed. Speaking of men and women and Kotex and advertising, read a man's rage at women's intruding into what he thought was just for males - the competent gender. That was 1949. Have you heard these complaints today? Look at the address at the bottom. This is just one of many Kotex Chicago pad and tampon addresses from the 1920s. Was Kotex playing hide and go seek? Kotex was not the only company dispensing pads to the rest-room crowd. And Kotex had the guts to send its dispenser offer to TAMPAX! Whew! Finally, to explain the added blue sky at the top of the page: Kotex blue was famous and a puzzle. Have you ever seen the blue liquid in menstruation advertising? It might have originated with the brand. |
| Below:
The black-and-white ad measures 10 1/4 x
13 3/4" (about 26 x 34.9 cm). |
 |
| Below: Look right
above these words. See the
patent number? Well, through the magic of the Museum of Menstruation and Women's Health you see the picture part of that patent below! OK, so it's through the magic of the Web and the U.S. Patent Office. But I introduced you two! It apparently shows how the company deodorized its pads. (Read about the distressing engine of menstrual odor. It's menstrual discharge plus - well, read.) |
 |
See some Kotex first-campaign ads: general discussion and ad prototype - January 1921 - May 1921 - November 1921