Print Ad Analysis: Always Maxipad Ad Analysis and Themes in Feminine Product Advertising
Kelly Elizabeth Love

In this analysis, I will trace a brief history of the advertising of feminine products

in the United States and relate this history to the current approach of Always Maxipads.

I suggest that the themes in past advertising are repackaged in terms of female sexual

empowerment.

In order to understand the current frame of feminine product advertising, I will

begin with a review of the history of the advertising in the United States. When disposable

pads first entered the market at the beginning of the twentieth century, companies

found that women were unwilling to ask the druggist for pads. Marketing officials thus

urged stores to place boxes of pads on the counter within reach of women.[1] Companies

like Modess and Platex also began including "silent purchase coupons" in their ads that

women could hand to the druggist so they would not have to verbally ask for feminine

products.[2] Similarly, Kotex began to advertise that their pads were sold in unmarked

boxes which would make the purchase even more discrete.[3] This emphasis on silence

and discretion highlights that in public spaces women's sexuality is seen as shameful and

embarrassing.

While companies tried to make purchasing pads less embarrassing, they also positioned

disposable pads as the intelligent, modern alternative to traditional napkins which

were washable, reusable pads. Sanitary pad advertisements in the 1920s had titles such as

"A New Benefit to Womankind"[4] and "Mother Don't Be Quaint"[5] that emphasized that

the modern woman should use disposable pads and that using reusable napkins was out

of date.

After establishing disposable pads as a female necessity, advertisers in the 1930s and

40s began to focus on the "freedom" offered by sanitary products. Ads with titles such

as "She Doesn't Even Think About It"[6] and "Active Days Are Here Again"[7] stressed that

pads offered women a life that was unhampered by menstrual cycles. After the onset of

WorldWar Two, feminine products also began to be equated with female empowerment.

For example, a 1947 Kotex advertisement asks women, "How much freedom can a career

girl enjoy" and implies that Kotex will allow a woman to be free to pursue her career.[8]

Following the Zeitgeist of the times, feminine product advertising in the 1950s was

marked by an emphasis on womens femininity and discretion. This discretion, hiding

and denying that menstruation is a normal part of women's sexuality, is important because

it emphasizes how undesirable that aspect of womanhood. A series of Modess ads

in the early 1950s featured glamorous women in long evening dresses with the caption

"Modess. . . because."[9] Advertising after the 1950s, however, has returned to the theme of

female independence, but often retained a tone of femininity. For example, a New Freedom

advertisement in 1971 featured the caption, "Welcome to the beltless, pinless, fuss-less generation" followed by a smaller slogan, "Femininity today".[10]

Current advertising for feminine products has retained a focus on freedom and femininity,

but has repackaged this theme in more sexual terms. The ad (2003) for Always

Maxipads shows a woman in her early 20s intimately embracing a man of a similar age.

The caption "What does every woman wish would last longer?" suggests that despite

appearances, she is unsatisfied by her lover's sexual capacity. The caption that follows,

"Now, now ladies. Were talking about maxipad protection" redefines the previous statement

to refer to menstrual pads.

The caption that refers to "what every woman wishes would last longer" suggests

a more hyper-sexualized woman than was found in previous decades of advertising. Not

only does she desire her man to perform better in bed, but she needs a maxipad that "lets

her keep her mind on more important things". This type of sexually empowered female

image is a feature of recent advertising. For example, a Clairol ad for shampoo features a

woman with her eyes closed, a finger lightly gripped in her teeth, was captioned, "This is

the look of a totally satisfied woman".[11]

In addition to being cast sexually, the woman featured in the Always ad is framed by

a torn paper edge which positions her as the focus of the ad and seems to push her up out

in front of the paper. By being brought to the fore of the image, the woman is placed in

a position of power. She appears to be a woman who is in control. The man, in contrast,

is shadowed and barely visible, his eyes downcast and only part of his body visible. His

positioning and objectification also reflects the ads' female target audience. The torn edge

separating the man and the woman seems to suggest a casual immediacy and illicitness.

Unlike the frame of the ad, the caption suggests a more tempered sexuality. The

headings of the ad switch the use of terms from asking what "every woman wishes" to chiding "now, now ladies". This change serves to cast females in as confident females

who are also feminized. This feminization echoes the tone of previous' decades in which

women were cast as independent, yet feminine. The tone of "now, now ladies" also suggests

a slightly condescending narrator and a counter message to empowerment by infantalizing

women. This tone of voice serves to further feminize the woman in the ad and

the women that the ad targets.

The ad also uses a color scheme common in feminine product advertising and packaging

in the United States.[12] Companies marketing pads and tampons use blue and green

color schemes in order to draw emphasis away from menstrual blood. The green backdrop

and blue print in the Always ad suggests that when using this product, a womans

attention will not be on her period. The entire ad is carefully designed as to not contain

any pink or red at all as those colors would draw attention to menstruation. Like earlier

ads emphasizing discreetness, current advertising suggests that women will not even be

associated with the colors of menstruation.

Sut Jhally (1995:251) stresses the focus of advertising is suggesting how the consumer

can be happy through buying a commodity. Following this logic, advertisers insinuate

that feminine products will make women happy because they allow a woman to be

free from the stress of her period. Happiness for the woman of the 1940s was the freedom

to be a "career girl", while happiness for the woman of the new millennium is freedom to

focus on sex. This advertisement reflects conception of female "empowerment" in terms

of sexual freedom and power.

References

Jhally, Sut. "Image-Based Culture: Advertising and Popular Culture," in Gail Dines and

Jean M. Humez, (eds.) Gender, Race and Class in Media. London: Sage, 1995.

Always Sanitary Napkins. Cosmopolitan, November 2003.

[1] Museum of Menstruation andWomen's Health. http://www.mum.org/kotdispl.htm

[2] Museum of Menstruation andWomen's Health. http://www.mum.org/modjn28.htm

[3] Ad Access. http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu:80/dynaweb/adaccess/beauty/femhygiene1920s/GenericBookTextView/1525

[4] Ad Access. http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu:80/dynaweb/adaccess/beauty/femhygiene1920s/GenericBookTextView/694

[5] Ad Access. http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu:80/dynaweb/adaccess/beauty/femhygiene1920s/GenericBookTextView/185

[6] Ad Access. http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu:80/dynaweb/adaccess/beauty/femhygiene1930s/GenericBookTextView/2293

[7] Ad Access. http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu:80/dynaweb/adaccess/beauty/femhygiene1930s/GenericBookTextView/503

[8] Ad Access. http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu:80/dynaweb/adaccess/beauty/femhygiene1940s/GenericBookTextView/1961

[9] Ad Access. http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu:80/dynaweb/adaccess/beauty/femhygiene1950s/GenericBookView

[10] Museum of Menstruation andWomen's Health. http://www.mum.org/nwfrad71.htm

[11] Makley Image Archive. http://academic.reed.edu/anthro/faculty/mia/Images/Gallery/Pics/ATotallySatisfiedWoman.jpg

[12] Museum of Menstruation andWomen's Health. http://www.mum.org/disbag1.htm