The Kotex vending
machine (and the pad
within from the 1930s), the Kotex pad and
box of the 1930s
See also Australian douche ad
(ca. 1900) - Fresca
douche powder (U.S.A.) (date ?) - Kotique douche liquid
ad, 1974 (U.S.A.) - Liasan
(1) genital wash ad, 1980s (Germany) - Liasan (2) genital wash
ad, 1980s (Germany) - Lysol
douche liquid ad, 1928 (U.S.A.) - Lysol douche liquid ad,
1948 (U.S.A.) - Marvel
douche liquid ad, 1928 (U.S.A.) - Midol menstrual pain
pill ad, 1938 (U.S.A.) - Midol
booklet (selections), 1959 (U.S.A.) - Mum deodorant cream ad,
1926 (U.S.A.) - Myzone
menstrual pain pills ad, 1952 (Australia) - Pristeen genital spray
ad, 1969 (U.S.A.) - Spalt
pain tablets, 1936 (Germany) - Vionell genital spray ad,
1970, with Cheryl Tiegs (Germany) - Zonite douche liquid ad,
1928 (U.S.A.)
The Perils of Vaginal
Douching (essay by Luci Capo Rome) - the odor page
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Kotex vs. Modess menstrual pads, 1930-31,
U.S.A.
Umbrellas and pads protect
Modess and Kotex pads battled it out
from the time Modess appeared in the
mid-1920s (Kotex started in 1920)
until Modess lost when its belted pads
disappeared from the American market
in the 1990s. Johnson & Johnson,
maker of Modess, famously commissioned
Dr. Lillian Gilbreth, of "Cheaper by
the Dozen" fame, to figure out what women
wanted in a pad.
At the time of these ads many
companies sold menstrual pads in the
U.S.A. but Kotex was king - er, queen.
The lonely woman in the Modess ad
(below, right) eerily reflects that;
the Kotex ladies chat away, discussing
Kotex's pros and cons I'm sure (and in
the second Kotex ad, below the first).
Modess usually had the more elegant
ads (here's another ccompany's attempt at
elegance), culminating in the famous "Modess . . . .
because" series, which are as
verbally anorectic as this Modess
model is physically. Even a wrapped Modess
dispenser pad wilts under the
verbiage of its Kotex
competitor. You could say
Kotex's competitor is more Modess(t).
Look at the Modess wearer's face;
she should have just stayed home.
The ads measure 13 7/8" high.
Magazines could be huge before the oil
shortage in the 1970s reduced them to
the sizes we have today. Too bad.
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© 1998 Harry Finley. It is illegal to
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