See Kotex ad with a man
and no woman from the Netherlands
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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Plastic
Bag from a German Drug
Store
In the early 1990s the clerk at the
checkout register of a Müller's
drugstore (a Drogerie,
which doesn't fill prescriptions;
that's done in an Apotheke) in
Heidelberg, Germany, slapped this
plastic shopping bag down (for 10
Pfennige, about seven cents at the
time) on the counter for me to put my
soap and toothbrush in. In many stores
in Germany, the customer fills her
(his) own bag, which he (she) often
brings with him (her).
But I doubt that a customer in
America could ever get a bag with Kotex advertised on
the side (but see what Kotex once did!) - or would
want one! - which is basically the
case here. Freedom
(see a German ad,
American ads for Kotex
tampons, and a box of tampons
of the French version) is a line of
menstrual pads, tampons and panty pads
made by Kimberly-Clark, which also
makes Kotex
in the U.S.A.
Many Germans understand American
English, and many young Germans regard
it and America as "cool" and modern -
young, as
a Swedish girl once explained to me
(she had just returned from a summer
in France, which she thought was
"old"), thus maybe explaining its use
here.
Did 100
Americans understand Fahrvergnügen
("driving
enjoyment") in the Volkswagen ad
campaign of about a decade ago in
the U.S.A?
The words under "Freedom" mean - get
ready for this - Menstrual hygiene
that's fun! (The last words mean
"pads, tampons, panty pads.")
Those Germans will stop at nothing for
a good time!
At least that's better than the
gloomy view most people and cultures
hold of menstruation.
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© 1999 Harry Finley. It is
illegal to reproduce or distribute any
of the work on this Web site in any
manner or medium without written
permission of the author. Please
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