Journal Entry 7

The disposable sanitary napkin was a high-tech invention (inspired, incidentally, by military products) that changed the way women dealt with menstruation. It also helped create modern perceptions of how menstruation should manage through its advertising, which was remarkably explicit and strictly adhered to emerging stereotypes about the “modern” woman of the 1920s should aspire to. Before Kotex’s arrival on the scene, women didn’t have access to disposable sanitary napkins—the “sanitary” part was a huge step forward for women who could afford these products. But the brand’s creator, Kimberly-Clark, also reinforced through its advertising campaigns that menstruation was something to conceal and a problem for women rather than a natural bodily function. In the flow of domestic sanitary napkin advertisements in Korea, attempts to hide menstruation occurred frequently. These attempts were made using alternative words such as ‘the day’ to replace the word menstruation and promote a clean image instead of direct exposure of menstrual blood.

The first disposable sanitary napkins produced in Korea are sanitary napkins of the brand ‘Cotex’ produced by Yuan-Kimberly, a company specializing in household goods in 1971. Then, in 1975, Cortex launched the self-adhesive disposable sanitary napkin and became very popular. At the time, newspaper advertisements emphasized a modern and urban image, such as a woman riding a short-sleeved bicycle with the phrase “Who liberates women?” Ewha Woman’s University Asian Women’s Studies Center Researcher Noh Ji-Eun, in her thesis 『Discourse on Sanitary Napkin Advertising Discourse and Women in the 1970s and 1990s』, “Yuan-Kimberly started advertising with a focus on ‘women’s liberation to offer a new product to female consumers in a conservative social atmosphere at the time. did,” he explained.

As recently as the 1980s, scientific diagrams showing how to insert tampons were blue. A Sure & Natural ad from 1983 compared the inefficient absorbency of a conventional pad with the quick dispersion of liquid in a “Maxishield” using royal blue liquids. Further graphics demonstrating layers of absorbency in pads used blue arrows and blue ink to demonstrate their effectiveness. White is also commonly featured in pad ads — a color symbolizing purity and an idealized feminine state for women. In 1973, a brand called Dr. White’s appeared. Its ads featured young women dressed in white bikinis, pantsuits, white lingerie, or white dresses.

Scholar Ira Torresi described the “moral duty of cleanliness” historically required of women. This is an obligation reflected in the continued use of white in these advertisements. Menstrual periods were often considered dirty, so descriptions of pads and tampons were considered “hygienic.”

Even during the 1970 and 1980s, sexist and over-sexualized images of young women were used to sell period products. One Tampax ad featured a prepubescent girl in a barely-there bikini top more appropriate for an adult. Studies have shown that such sanctification and objectification lead society to view women as “disabled and less intelligent.” Rather than empowering women, this image and other images I found set unrealistic expectations of how menstruating girls should look and feel.

Before sanitary napkin TV commercials began in earnest in the mid-1990s, sanitary napkin advertisements were mainly delivered through print media, and advertisements for women’s magazines targeting female consumers who use sanitary napkins were an important discourse production space for popularizing sanitary napkin products. It recaptured the No. 1 position in the sanitary napkin market with the launch of ‘Cortex White’ in 1995 with the slogan of “Clean” and the series ‘Cotex Good Feeling’ in 1999 in Korea. White created a pure and clean image by appointing an innocent and neat female college student. White’s ‘pure and clean image’ is stronger than the public college students. I wanted to appeal to the social issues related to health, environment, safety, and women’s issues at the time. It has nothing to do with the rise of power.