More ads for teens (see also introductory page for
teenage advertising): Are
you in the know?
(Kotex napkins and Quest napkin powder, 1948,
U.S.A.), Are
you in the know?
(Kotex napkins, 1953, U.S.A.), Are you in the know? (Kotex napkins and belts,
1964, U.S.A.), Freedom
(1990, Germany), Kotex (1992, U.S.A.), Pursettes (1974, U.S.A.), Pursettes (1974, U.S.A.), Saba (1975, Denmark)
More ads for teens: See
a Modess True or False?
ad in The American Girl magazine, January 1947,
and actress Carol Lynley
in "How Shall I Tell My Daughter" booklet ad
(1955) - Modess . . . .
because ads (many dates). Freedom (1990, Germany), Kotex (1992, U.S.A.), Pursettes (1974, U.S.A.), Pursettes (1974, U.S.A.), Saba (1975, Denmark)
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Are you in the
know?
Ad for Kotex menstrual pads, July 1947
The American Girl magazine
This doesn't exactly apply
to the ad below - as a matter of
fact it doesn't apply at all - but I
have to get this off my chest:
Read this quote for a surprise in
light of the racist
jokes (in a 1936 issue) in
this official Girl Scout magazine of
the time:
"The Girl Scouts of America began as
an all-white organization in
Savannah, Ga., in 1912. Five
years later, in 1917, the troop
introduced its first African
American girl scouts .... [more]"
"At one time this magazine had the
largest circulation of any magazine
aimed at teen-aged girls" (Wikipedia).
This reminds me of what F. Scott
Fitzgerald said:
"The test of a first-rate
intelligence is the ability to hold
two opposing ideas in mind at the
same time and still retain the
ability to function." So I guess the
Girl Scouts organization had a
first-rate intelligence.
Actually, I mention this because
of the
upper-middle-class/upper-class
pristine-looking white Anglo-Saxon (probably)
Protestant (WASP) kids in this ad
and in the whole series.
Irving Nurick,
an excellent illustrator and
definitely not a WASP, drew this one
and similar
ads for Kotex for years.
And I suspect the person who wrote
the text wrote the As one [sic]
Girl to Another booklets for
girls - there's a lot of the
same humor and colloquial language.
We see that sameness in a Kotex war
ad, "Are You in the Know?" (May 1944)
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Below left:
OMG, I didn't realize
girls don't like their hair
pulled!
Guess I'll go back to
pulling my cats' tails.
They DO
seem to like that.
Below
middle: In "What
brings out a suntan best?" beauty
and the beach seems to be
one of many word plays in this
long-running ad series: beauty
and the beast. The beast would
be the guy with the bucket.
Bottom:
I hope she's not trying to
conceal that box in her bag! It
won't fit.
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Below
center: The
illustrator drew hearts
in at least three other ads in
this series, here,
here
and in what might have been his
secret
joke. But it was fun to
extract.
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Below
right: Like, what
a trilemma for budgeteen! But
she's already cut back on caviar
for breakfast and deserves to
coddle herself. Or did she ask
the croqueteer at left to "help
her out"? PETA was 23 years in
the future so she has a clear
(if any) conscience.
If that's a black sales clerk
it's a rare
appearance of
African-Americans in the Are you
in the know? series. Other
non-WASPS are just as rare.
Maybe to conform to a different
fashion, illustrator Nurick
shortened budgeteen's hair and
darkened it in the later
(1956) collection of these
cartoon situations.
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Read the later booklet "As
One Girl To Another," many pages of
similar WASPish teenage fun and tips.
© 2013 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
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