Lysol is a brand name that we know and trust to disinfect and kill germs on various types of external surfaces. In the late 1920’s and into the 1940’s, Lysol brand disinfectant liquid was target marketed for internal use by women, as a feminine hygiene product. The ads implored women to safeguard their dainty feminine allure to their husbands by practicing complete feminine hygiene. Mothers were told the way to preserve their health and youth so they could raise happy children. Wives wanting birth control were told freedom from the fears of pregnancy was as close as their neighborhood store.
Ads for a bottle of Lysol disinfectant liquid promised women a blissful sexual relationship in marriage, good health and happy children, and when the woman had all the children she wanted, Lysol promised her sexual fulfillment without fear of pregnancy.
Marketing ads for Lysol promised to deliver all this to women who would use their product for feminine hygiene by douching regularly with it.
Print marketing advertisements touted liquid Lysol in a glass bottle as being the answer to marital problems, hinting that lack of sex in the marriage was all the wives fault, due to ‘intimate neglect’. Douching with gentle, non-caustic Lysol regularly would ensure feminine daintiness, protect married happiness, and keep a woman desirable. to her husband. Lysol was a scientifically correct preparation, with no greasy after effect from douching with it. Better than soap, salt or baking soda for douching, Lysol was the doctor recommended product for feminine hygiene..
To be a successful mother, one that has happy children, is not fatigued, nervous or weak, that mother would have to keep her body in a state of ‘scientific cleanliness’. That state would be achieved by douching with Lysol Disinfectant. Lysol was marketed as being ‘soothing and lubricating, it’s effect protective and comforting, and leaving you with a tonic feeling of well being’. The ad promised that Lysol was so carefully blended that it could not harm or irritate the most sensitive tissues. Practicing feminine hygiene by regularly douching with Lysol would supposedly protect against infection and deodorize.
In the July 1933 issue of McCall’s magazine, the market target for the Lysol ad was for women who wanted birth control. The Lysol ad implied it’s use as a birth control product, and a safeguard against divorce. So the ‘most gracious wife would not turn into nerve-ridden, irritable travesty of herself.’ due to constant fear of pregnancy. The ad promoted regular feminine hygiene by douching with Lysol to ‘ensure health and harmony throughout her married life’. A subtly worded ad for an over-the-counter birth control product in a bottle.
Ads like these were published in the 1930’s in women’s magazines, complete with a mail in coupon to receive a free booklet on feminine hygiene facts from the makers of Lysol Disinfectant, Lehn & Fink.
Sources:
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2005/is_n3_v29/ai_18498205
http://chawedrosin.wordpress.com/2007/05/16/lysol-for-feminine-hygiene/
http://www.thewvsr.com/lysol.htm
