See a roughly contemporary pad, Society,
and a "silent purchase" ad for Modess,
1928.
Other Modess ads: 1931,"Modess . . . . because" ads, the French
Modess, and the German "Freedom" (Kimberly-Clark)
for teens.
See a prototype of the first Kotex
ad.
 
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The perfect menstrual pad 2a (1 2 2a 3
4 4a 5):
Box for 1930s Modess pad
"Report of Gilbreth, Inc.," to
Johnson & Johnson Company, 1 January 1927, about how to
improve the company's menstrual products, especially with regard to competition
with Kotex pads
The box is as blue as you can get, in spite of Dr.
Gilbreth's exasperation with the color; and Kotex was famously blue.
Maybe the "blue fluid" so laughed at today in menstrual products
advertising is simply a carryover of an advertising gimmick, that of putting
the company color everywhere.
As I mentioned earlier, the company calls
it a "boudoir box," and intended it to be unidentifiable. But
it has writing on all six sides (you see only three, below) and the word
"Modess" is 5.25" (13.4 cm) long and 1.125" (2.9 cm)
high on each of the four long sides. Go figure.
The box measures 7.75" (20.5 cm) wide, 3" (7.6 cm) high and
3.25" (8.2 cm) deep.
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The copy of the report that I read, which might be unique, rests
in the special collections of Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana,
U.S.A. Dr. Gilbreth was the first woman engineering professor at Purdue.
© 1999 Harry Finley. It is illegal to reproduce
or distribute work on this Web site in any manner or medium without written
permission of the author. Please report suspected violations to hfinley@mum.org
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