Some days you just feel like you've hit the jackpot. That's exactly how I feel because I found AD ACCESS ( a project at Duke University) which I found by way of Gingajoy where I landed by way of ZeldaFest which I visited because of Mocha Momma which I found on Blogher.
It was this ad on Gingajoy's blog that caught my attention. The Headline Reads "Don't Be a 'Fraid-Cat, Mother,There's No Danger." It is an ad for Modess sanitary pads circa the 1920s. Many of us who came of age in the 1960s have very definite memories of Modess and their every wedgy sanitary belt that used to be a real pain in the butt.
"Life is so much more fun when one is not afraid. It is her happy
courage—the zest with which she welcomes every new delightful freedom—which is
the charm of the modern girl. What mother can bear to stay in the drab
shadows of middle life when such a daughter beckons back to
youth?
Youth—which will not tolerate senseless drudgery, the
slavery of old-fashioned ways. "
If you love this ad, there are about 7,000 more where this one came from.
"The Ad*Access Project, funded by the Duke Endowment "Library 2000" Fund, presents images and database information for over 7,000 advertisements printed in U.S. and Canadian newspapers and magazines between 1911 and 1955. Ad*Access concentrates on five main subject areas: Radio, Television, Transportation, Beauty and Hygiene, and World War II, providing a coherent view of a number of major campaigns and companies through images preserved in one particular advertising collection available at Duke University. The advertisements are from the J. Walter Thompson Company Competitive Advertisements Collection of the John W. Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising, and Marketing History in Duke University's Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library. "
And with that I bring you another sanitary ad from the 1920's. It's headline:
"If Only I Could Tell This To Every Business Girl"
It"In offices throughout the country-in offices all over the world-women are realizing the full value of every working day, free from problems which once retarded their progress. Kotex has not only meant new comfort and better health but it has brought a priceless mental relief.