See more Kotex items: Other first-campaign ads: May
1921 - July 1921 - November
1921. 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
And read Lynn Peril's series about these
and similar booklets!
Even more 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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The first Kotex sanitary napkin ad campaign, 1921, and almost-the-first
Kotex ad (prototype, about 1920)
The First World War changed our notion of war, paved the way for Hitler
and Stalin, reduced the power of the European aristocracy - and gave birth
to the first widely successful disposable menstrual pad, Kotex. There had
been others, both in Europe and the United States, but I suspect women in
the English-speaking world and in Europe, ready to enjoy increased opportunities,
saw a way to freedom from storing and washing the often cotton pads.
The Kimberly-Clark Corporation made bandages for American troops in
Europe and had many left over after the war. Apparently American nurses
in France found that the cellulose (which comes from trees, not cotton plants)
wrappings made very absorbent menstrual pads, and were fairly cheap, so
they could throw them away. K-C saw an opportunity, and created the Cellucotton
Products Company to sell them. The word Kotex retains its cotton past: it
means [K]Otton-like TEXture, a ruse that was supposed to make it easy to
buy menstrual pads because clerks supposedly would not snicker at the word
Kotex; but of course they did after a while. (Read a report
about problems women had buying Kotex and other brands and see a way Kotex tried to get around this.)
The first ad series for Kotex appeared in 1921 (see ads for January, May, July, and November). Kotex
invested more advertising dollars in The Ladies' Home Journal more than
any other magazine in Kotex's first 20 years, starting in January. Wallace
Meyer (honored at this museum), who led the campaign and wrote the copy
for at least the first ad, had to assure the publications printing the ads
that the ads would be dignified, which they were, as you see.
By the way, here are excerpts from a long letter to the 28 February
1949 Advertising Age that discussed the "feminine
angle" in ad writing, an alleged woman writer for the early Kotex
ads, and women in advertising in general. The male writer, advertising
manager for the Tupper Corporation, in Farnumsville, Mass., described himself
as a "scarred, gray and grim veteran of this profession." (I left
his writing style alone. The word "copy" means the writing you
read in an ad - the text.):
[A man who supports women in advertising has] a lean-on-mother inhibition
[which] assures the gals that they and only they can contribute that "feminine
touch" to copy that will make other women buy. And they believe it.
. . .
There is a well substantiated piece of advertising history with which
you may or may not be familiar. When Kotex was launched, it was considered
necessary that a very delicate approach be made; indeed it was wondered
whether ethical publications would even accept the copy. [Read the case
of the first real person in a menstrual ad, Lee
Miller.] So, a woman was employed to write the copy - an ex-registered
nurse. Perhaps she had no flair for writing. In any event the advertising
and merchandising and sales flopped until a man was put on the account;
I do not recall who he was, but Kotex went over. [As I understand it, Kotex
succeeded when the company told merchants to display
it on the counter, with a coin box nearby, allowing women to buy
it without talking to a clerk.]
I am of the opinion, and conviction, that the success of the average
gal in business and particularly in our profession is gauged by this: If
a woman manages to do a half way intelligent job she is hailed as
a wonder. Put a man in that same job and his performance if only comparable
to hers would result in his getting the well known gate or being barely
tolerated at the most.
In my book there is a biological and mental difference between the sexes
and that is like Kipling's East and West. For which I am grateful. You
see I am twice married. I played out the first string until death did us
part . . . .
But please, Lord, deliver us from career gals and and other women in
business who cannot resist throwing their sex around to accomplish ends
and objectives which damn fool so-called males fall for. To paraphrase
Puck, "What fools we men be."
And now I am reminded of the teen-ager, Mary-Lou, on the Ozzie and Harriet
program. Her gushings and extravagances are only slightly modified in the
feminine copywriter once she takes a pencil in hand or begins to beat the
typewriter. That's just the feminine angle. . . .
John Craig Heady
Paramedics have told me that menstrual pads - "Kotex" - make
good bandages; they wouldn't be amazed at their origin. I wonder if Ernest
Hemingway, an ambulance driver in the First World War and seriously wounded,
knew that perhaps his bandages had an unusual future. (Not to get away from
the subject, but I just learned that Hemingway loved cats
and had a herd of them on Key West. You cannot have enough cats.)
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Long download!
Above and right: Prototype for
the first Kotex ad (about 1920). This example in negative form, maybe the
only form, from the State Historical Society of
Wisconsin, might be unique. I created the positive image at right
using Photoshop. The irony about saving men's lives is huge. But true. Read the words.
Below: Below is the full-page
ad from one of the many American magazines carrying the first series of
Kotex ads in 1921. See it enlarged and read
the words.
Meyer said in a paper deposited in his archive at the State
Historical Society of Wisconsin (where the prototype ad is found) that the
admen rejected the prototype shown above and at right because there were
too many men for a product designed for women.
The group effectively reversed the proportion of men to women in the actual
first ad, below, and greatly altered the ad words.
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Other first-campaign ads: May 1921 - July 1921 - November 1921
© 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 report suspected
violations to hfinley@mum.org
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