Vintage Period Product Ads Make Even the Year 2020 Look Good

It’s no secret menstrual product advertisements rarely depict people with periods accurately. Rather than portraying periods as the crappy experience they tend to be, they show menstruating womxn frolicking through fields of wildflowers, while wearing all white clothing and suggesting that we bleed the colour blue. More often than not, ads can be down-right bizarre in their portrayal of menstruator’s struggles being miraculously and immediately “solved” all thanks to a product… puh-lease.

While most of us could agree the year 2020 would, at best, receive a one-star Yelp review with a comment along the lines of “Avoid at all costs, would not recommend”, these old-school period product ads published throughout the decades show that maybe 2020 isn’t SO bad after all.

Check out some vintage cringe-worthy period product ads and be thankful for how far they have come by 2020:

1926: Menstruation is a “hygienic handicap” … Big OOF

1928:

1937:

1952:

1969:

1969: (we can safely say 69 was a bad year)

1972: One of the first menstrual cups brands to be advertised… it is disposable?!?

1974:

1990:

2011:

References

1.    Advertisement: Kotex (Cellucotton Products Co.). 1926. Harper's Bazaar, 59(2561), pp. 135.

2.    Advertisement: Modess. 1928. Vogue, 71(9), pp. 32.

3.    Palmer, G., 1937. Features: Nice Going! Vogue, 89(3), pp. 80-80, 81, 115.

4.    Advertisement: Kotex Co. 1952. Vogue, 119(2),.

5.    Advertisement: WARNER-LAMBERT PHARMACEUTICAL CO. 1969. Good Housekeeping, 168(2), pp. 8-9.

6.    Advertisement: PRISTEEN. 1970. Chatelaine, 43(6), pp. 11.

7.    Advertisement: Tassaway, Inc. 1972. Redbook, 139(2), pp. 56.

8.    Finley, Harry. 1998. Ad for Pursettes tampon, U.S.A., 1974 Cheerleader drops her tampon. Accessed December 11, 2020. http://www.mum.org/shame1.htm.

 9.. Advertisement: Femicin. 1969. Redbook, 132(6), pp. 147.

10. Burnett, L. 2011. Advertisement: Tampax