Advertising during war: Girls in slacks hail tampax

While tampons have been around since the 19th century (see the Museum of Menstruation for more history), they really took off in the U.S. in the 1940s. One of the reasons for this was a targeted campaign by Tampax that took advantage of women's new labor participation during WWII. These newspaper ads from that time period show the ways tampons were marketed to women who were not only working, but wearing pants on the job.

These ads would make for a great class discussion on gender and the homefront during war (not to mention a discussion of women's work and bodies)-- particularly on how gender relations and practices can change (temporarily or permanently) during wartime.


I found these at the amazing database of old ads that Gwen posted about. Thanks again for the link Martin W.!

Posted by Anonymous Saturday, March 29, 2008 at 8:21 AM Labels: , , , , ,  

1 comments:

  Julie

March 29, 2008 at 4:23 PM

What's really fascinating about the WWII era tampon ads is their target audience-- decidedly NOT the bulk of women who were recruited for many of the factory jobs etc (There's an excellent film that deals with this a bit-- think its called the life and times of Rosie the Riveter...) Plus, if you look into the menstrual product ads of the 1950's you can see a very real backlash at work-- from Rosie the Riveter to Modess girl in a ballgown in 5 short years!

Thanks for posting this-- its a favorite subject of mine and I've written a couple papers on the issue, so its always exciting to see!

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