Compare a French
Modess ad, a German
ad, and another French ad featuring just a man!
And see a Modess . .
. . because pad
dispenser from the Smithsonian
Institution, in Washington, D.C. (U.S.A.).
See a prototype
of the first Kotex ad.
See more Kotex items: Ad 1928 (Sears and Roebuck
catalog) - Marjorie
May's Twelfth Birthday (booklet for
girls, 1928, Australian edition; there are
many links here to Kotex items) - 1920s
booklet in Spanish showing disposal method
- box from about
1969 - Preparing
for Womanhood (1920s, booklet for
girls) - "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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Modess . . .
. because ad photo on playing
cards (more such ads 2, 3)
1960?
The card deck was probably used as a gift to
promote Modess products to store owners.
Companies
everywhere want to sell their
products. But most sell them to
intermediaries like stores, not
directly to consumers
However, stores can't sell everything.
Somebody must choose.
That's where these cards come in.
How seductive to retailers these
little inducements were in Modess's
case is probably unknown exactly, a
common puzzle in advertising. But
that advertising persists at all
reflects companies' belief that it's
worth it.
Cards also figure in a 1941 ad
for archrival Kotex
Modess pads competed with
Kotex from the 1920s.
See an ad aimed at teenagers.
And see an advertising
package urging
dealers to sell Modess products.
I thank once again
the generous Dutch contributor
for these scans of his cards!
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Below:
The same fashion photo is on the
back of each card.
Modess ran a long
campaign showing high-fashion
on
snooty-looking models. Is there
a greater contrast between
the rarefied and the plebeian
in this need for protection during
menstruation?
A woman of the former class could
use the pad without fear of
ruining her clothing.
Or so the company hoped.
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Below:
The box holding the standard-size
cards, 90 x 58mm. The cards'
owner noted that
the box lacks any visual connection
to Modess or
menstruation. Well, maybe red,
also on the cards.
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Below: Who would be
interested in how much space
Modess belts and
pads and tampons and underpants
needed in stores? Store
owners.
But would the owners play bridge,
the word written on the front of
the
box (right, at bottom)? Was
that word designed to approach
the social level
of haute couture?
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Below:
Was the cards model Dovima -
Dorothy Virginia Margaret
Juba? The New York Times in its obituary
wrote that she was "the model whom
[photographer] Richard Avedon called
'' 'the most remarkable and
unconventional beauty of her time'
''?
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The
model on the cards.
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Dovima
in 1954, magazine
unknown. (Google
images)
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| Below:
This might also be Dovima on
a Modess box for a belt
designed to hold a menstrual
pad. As a child sick in bed
with rheumatic fever, she
invented the name Dovima
for an imaginary
companion. More belts. |
 |
Hauteur versus the iconic
gamine: Dovima and Audrey
Hepburn (Google images)
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Pages 1, 2, 3 of Modess . . . . because
ads
Compare a French
Modess ad, a German
ad, and another French ad featuring just a man!
And see a Modess .
. . . because pad dispenser from
the Smithsonian Institution.
© 2015 Harry Finley.
It is illegal to reproduce or distribute
work on
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without written permission of
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violations to hfinley@mum.org
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