Always menstrual pads ad text - Ad Wiz - ad-writing contest, 1994 Dr White Shapes (pads), U.K., ad-writing contest, 1990 Pad directory See a Modess True or False? ad in The American Girl magazine, January 1947, and actress Carol Lynley in "How Shall I Tell My Daughter" booklet ad (1955) - Modess . . . . because ads (many dates) CONTRIBUTE to Humor, Words and expressions about menstruation and Would you stop menstruating if you could? Some MUM site links: homepage | MUM address & What does MUM mean? | e-mail the museum | privacy on this site | who runs this museum?? | Amazing women! | the art of menstruation | artists (non-menstrual) | asbestos | belts | bidets | founder bio | Bly, Nellie | MUM board | books: menstruation and menopause (and reviews) | cats | company booklets for girls (mostly) directory | contraception and religion | costumes | menstrual cups | cup usage | dispensers | douches, pain, sprays | essay directory | extraction | facts-of-life booklets for girls | famous women in menstrual hygiene ads | FAQ | founder/director biography | gynecological topics by Dr. Soucasaux | humor | huts | links | masturbation | media coverage of MUM | menarche booklets for girls and parents | miscellaneous | museum future | Norwegian menstruation exhibit | odor | olor | pad directory | patent medicine | poetry directory | products, current | puberty booklets for girls and parents | religion | Religión y menstruación | your remedies for menstrual discomfort | menstrual products safety | science | Seguridad de productos para la menstruación | shame | slapping, menstrual | sponges | synchrony | tampon directory | early tampons | teen ads directory | tour of the former museum (video) | underpants & panties directory | videos, films directory | Words and expressions about menstruation | Would you stop menstruating if you could? | What did women do about menstruation in the past? | washable pads Leer la versión en español de los siguientes temas: Anticoncepción y religión, Breve reseña - Olor - Religión y menstruación - Seguridad de productos para la menstruación. Museum of Menstruation and Women's Health alldays thong pad ad, Procter & Gamble, U.S.A. In the second-to-last issue of Mademoiselle magazine, October 2001 Think thongs have been around forever? Maybe approximately forever among men, probably not among women, though. Wiki credits the then-wild fashion designer Rudi Gernreich with the modern Western thong in 1974.  But the first I know of menstrual pads for thongs is from the late 1990s when a site visitor wrote me that a Scandinavian company (SCA) had started selling them. I suspect that before specially-shaped pads existed women used tampons, cups or sponges with thongs or just didn't wear one while menstruating. How simple is this ad? Compare it with this one. The ad is not as bold as you think for America. Sure, you see the woman's bottom - bottoms were and are everywhere - but you don't see the pad, part of the very point of a thong's (almost) invisibility. Some European ads DO show pads. Too bad Mademoiselle magazine disappeared soon after this issue. It had published Sylvia's Plath's short story "Sunday at the Mintons" and made her a guest editor in 1953. Her experience there became The Bell Jar. (She gassed herself 10 years later.) Joyce Carol Oates, Alice Munro, Flannery O'Connor and other literary stars - not all women! - wrote for the magazine. By the way, a patent filed for Alldays (think P & G's Always) lists this museum as a reference. I suspect other patents have cited MUM. Always once sponsored an ad-writing contest: Always menstrual pads ad text - Ad Wiz - ad-writing contest, 1994 So did a company in the U.K.: Dr White Shapes (pads), U.K., ad-writing contest, 1990 Below: The page measures about 8 x 10 3/4" (c. 20.3 x 27.3 cm). Always menstrual pads ad text - Ad Wiz - ad-writing contest, 1994 Dr White Shapes (pads), U.K., ad-writing contest, 1990 Copyright 2015 Harry Finley