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 page
As One Girl to Another (complete booklet, 1940, Kotex, U.S.A.) - Teacher's kit (complete, early 1950s, Personal Products Corp., U.S.A.) - Shame in menstrual hygiene. A very early Tampax ad (1936)
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.

 

Modess menstrual pad ad
"All right, Doubting Ladies ... here's free proof!"
18 February 1933, Collier's magazine, U.S.A.

Would you call someone doubting if they weren't doubting?

I didn't think so.

Although probably always number 2, Modess fought Kotex for the lioness's share of the menstrual pad market in America until the latter faded from the scene in the late 1990s and 2000s. Remember the hospital pad and belt? No wonder, they've disappeared in the U.S.  (Smaller companies now make belts with washable pads.)

Doubting ladies probably convinced Johnson & Johnson, which made Modess, to pay famous efficiency expert Lillian Gilbreth for her advice about making a better menstrual pad. Even so, in the end Kotex conquered.

I enlarged the picture of the box, below, but couldn't read the small text. The largest lady is reading what looks like Modess's tour of their pad, the best of the real estate down under.  They hoped, anyway.

I wonder how many women this convinced.

Below: The black-and-white page measures 10 3/4 x 13 3/4" (27.3 x 34.9 cm).

This magazine, Collier's, in 1906, published a blistering takedown of the patent medicine industry.
Easy to read, exciting, it led to many reforms. But not enough.

See Kotex pads from the 1960s and 1970s - As One Girl to Another (complete booklet, 1940, Kotex, U.S.A.)

© 2014 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