o.b.
ads, booklets & actual tampons:
German (1970s) - German (1972) nude
woman on bed - German
nude (1970s) - French
(1989) - folder,
Germany, early 1950s (tells
what o.b. means!) - Dutch, two ads from
1959 giving THEIR take on what o.b. means,
which was wrong - Dutch ads, 1962, 1967 - Belgian ad with
beach & bathing suits, 1980s? - o.b. puberty booklets
(excerpts): German,
Dutch (2004) -
o.b. actual tampons:
Switzerland (o.b.é.),
1970
|
The Museum of Menstruation and Women's
Health
Ad for
Serena ultra thin
menstrual pads (Dr. Hahn GmbH)
September 1982, Germany
Bravo magazine
Ad for clothing available
from Otto mail-order catalog
Mädchen magazine, July
1982, Germany
The same model is in both ads
in magazines for teenagers.
Menstruating women in ads get
more respect today!
In July 1928 a woman scandalized
America by appearing in an ad
for menstrual products,
Kotex, a first.
Protest letters flew in to the
magazines showing it. The model,
Lee Miller, had not expected it
and was horrified. But by the end
of the year she was happy to have
ruffled American feathers. (This
and much more in her son Antony
Penrose's book The Lives of
Lee Miller.)
Today, ads for menstrual products
are old hat. See some
of the famous women who made
this progress possible.
I wish the same acceptance were
true for this museum! See some pro and con.
What is my point with the German
ad below? That a teen model
Germans frequently saw in respectable
clothing ads in the 1980s
(living in Germany in the 1970s
and 80s, I saw them) could also
promote menstrual pads in similar
magazines.
By the way, the company that made
Serena made the pioneering
European o.b.
tampon.
More ads for teens.
o.b. ads,
booklets & actual tampons: German
(1970s) - German
(1972) nude woman on bed - German nude
(1970s) - French
(1989) - folder,
Germany, early 1950s (tells what o.b.
means!) - Dutch,
two ads from 1959 giving THEIR
take on what o.b. means, which was
wrong - Dutch ads, 1962, 1967 - Belgian
ad with beach & bathing suits,
1980s? - o.b. puberty booklets
(excerpts): German,
Dutch
(2004) - o.b. actual tampons:
Switzerland (o.b.é.),
1970
|
Below:
The full-page Serena ad measures 8
1/4 x 11" (21 x 27.9 cm) and
appeared in September, 1982 in Bravo,
a German magazine for teenage boys
and girls.
My translation
from the top down: My
mother always wanted to convince
me to use
thick pads. But I found the
super-thin Serena simply better.
And now that they're even
more comfortable and safer,
my mother actually uses them.
And this is new with the new
Serena: It's even more comfortable
because it now has round ends. It
sits simply ideally and is still
more secure because of a double
adhesive strip and more absorbing
material.
Try it yourself. Whether you use
Serena or Deodorant Serena, you
always have a super-thin,
especially comfortable, and
overall safer pad.
The super-thin Serena. Security
can be this comfortable. [Then the
logo of the Dr. Hahn corporation,
the maker.]
Contrast these thin pads (and
today's) with the monsters
women wore earlier.
Earlier, women would cut
the corners off pads to
make them more comfortable - but
they still had to content with the coarse gauze covering
them. And how to get
rid of them!
|
Below:
This page appeared in a different
magazine (Mädchen, "girl")
for German girls two months earlier
and with the same model (see below).
My translation:
[Title, at bottom] For
ordering: A skirt that
disguises itself
[Larger text, bottom left]
Steffi's print India skirt is very
thin. You can order it
from the Otto mail-order company
[price, details and address]. ...
Please don't forget
your size and the
permission of your parents in
case you're not yet 18! [Emphasis
added.]
[Text at right] The skirt quickly
becomes a dress if you pull up
under the armpits ....
|
 |
 |
The
models are the same. |
 |
o.b. ads,
booklets & actual tampons: German
(1970s) - German
(1972) nude woman on bed - German nude
(1970s) - French
(1989) - folder,
Germany, early 1950s (tells what o.b.
means!) - Dutch,
two ads from 1959 giving THEIR
take on what o.b. means, which was
wrong - Dutch ads, 1962, 1967 - Belgian
ad with beach & bathing suits,
1980s? - o.b. puberty booklets
(excerpts): German,
Dutch
(2004) - o.b. actual tampons:
Switzerland (o.b.é.),
1970
|
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