Kotex ad emphasizing shame,
1992
Compare the American "Modess,
because . . ." ads, a French Modess ad, a
French ad featuring just a man!,
and ads for teens.
See Kotex items: First ad (1921) -
ad 1928 (Sears and
Roebuck catalog) - Lee
Miller ads (first real person in
amenstrual hygiene ad, 1928) - Marjorie May's Twelfth
Birthday (booklet for girls, 1928,
Australian edition; there are many links here to
Kotex items) - Preparing
for Womanhood (1920s, booklet for girls;
Australian edition) - 1920s booklet in Spanish
showing disposal
method - box
from about 1969 - "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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Kotex menstrual pad ad with a man and no
woman,
Malaysia, 2005
Fool the man! That's the point of
many ads for menstrual hygiene. Many
American ads show women how to keep
their menstruation secret, for example
Pursettes
(where size disguised them), and Kotex (also here) which
brings us to a shocking reversal of
attitude.
Men know all about it! They always
did, starting with whispers in grade
school for many. But few would broach
the shameful subject with girls and
the mutual secrecy continued, mostly
forever.
Now Kotex
and Nana
(scroll down about 1/3 the page) and
maybe others, have changed that. As
the present ad shows, a man and only a
man appears in an ad for Kotex - and
in a Muslim country!
Jacqueline Ann Surin wrote an article
in a Malaysian publication (Sun2Surf,
a bright image for this time of year)
about this revolutionary event. She
writes,
The idea behind the ads was that it
wasn't going to be about the women,
but about men admiring women for
their freedom, intelligence and
empowerment, explains Kimberly-Clark
Trading (M) Sdn Bhd marketing
director for Malaysia and Singapore,
Rosnah Ramly . . . .
She explains that Kotex's brand
strategy runs parallel to changes in
women and in society. "We spend a
significant amount on research to
understand what women
want."
So what do women want? Rosnah says
market research shows that women
want to feel empowered, and that the
traditional sanitary napkin ads
don't do that. "I consistently tell
my team to make sure that we don't
portray women as pathetic or
dependent on men. Women today are
empowered in their own right," she
says. [The story also discusses
selling shampoo to women who must
wear head scarves.]
Other ads for menstrual hygiene
featuring just a man include the
French Nana, here
and here .
And another is a Kotex ad which
mirrors this Malaysian one but
for the Netherlands. So is Kotex leading
the revolution?
In general I think it's healthy to
connect men with menstruation although
not in the sense that only a man could
cause such misery, as a Welsh woman
wrote me: "When I was in school we
used to say 'Henry was here,' as only
a man could cause such pain and
inconvenience." (See Words and
expressions for menstruation,
Wales section.)
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Below: This is the only
size I could find for the ad. "Kotex"
is in the upper left corner.
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