See more Kotex items: First ad (1921; scroll to bottom of page) - ad, 1928 (Sears and Roebuck catalog) - Lee Miller ads (first real person in a menstrual 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 pageThe first Kotex magazine ad campaignCONTRIBUTE to Humor, Words and expressions about menstruation
and Would you stop menstruating if you could?
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"Kotex completes
Milady's toilette,
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Do you still need to be
convinced that Kotex targeted the fancy readers of this magazine? Does calling the American reader Milady as if she were an English noblewoman flatter her? And toilette - no, not toilet - meant a cloth used to protect clothing as well as a dressing table covered with cloth (toile) and which might have held a mirror. The French association elevated the ad's tone, taking menstruation into a sophisticated realm of, yes, the upper middle class and above. Anything to take it out of the toilet! The first
Kotex magazine ad campaign.
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The full-page ad
measures 11 x 14" (27.9 x 35.6 cm). As in the 1921 ad Kotex is used as a plural - but only once. I wonder when the singular triumphed. "Best seller" first appeared in print in 1889 in the Kansas Times & Star newspaper (Wikipedia). How do you ask for menstrual pads when clerks hid them behind counters like most goods? Is the name, like Kotex, important? See a 1930s Kotex from a vending machine. Have a headache? Slap a wet Kotex on your forehead! Why not? suggests the ad. Today rescue units sometimes use Kotex to absorb blood. So, what is birdseye? Look at the Chicago address at the bottom: it's about 6 minutes by car today from one of Kotex's first tampon addresses, 30 S. Clinton St. and 9 minutes from another UrKotex tampon, 2014 W. Wabansia Ave! Grab the person nearest you and tell her (him?) that if you never want to see her again. Even in a protective plastic folder the claws of an evil cat ripped the corner. In a  |
Below: Look at the broad white strokes on the dress - beautiful. (I'm a painter.)  |
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A Kotex dispenser
peeks through the curtains hiding (almost) the toilet from the toilette. How would that conceal the - sorry to mention this! - sounds and smells? What looks like plumbing for a toilet or bidet sits in the lower right corner, speaking as we are of sitting. |
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See more Kotex items: First ad
(1921; scroll to bottom of page) - ad, 1928 (Sears and Roebuck
catalog) -
Lee Miller ads
(first real person in a menstrual hygiene ad,
1928)