Box of 30 Kotex Feminine Napkins, Super

Box of 30 Kotex Feminine Napkins (28 remaining), Super, packaging promotes a "Free Belt Offer", with original Rite Aid price sticker ($5.39), Kimberly-Clark, USA, 1989

Before self-adhesive menstrual pads entered the market around 1970, pads were secured with belts. Comprised of elastic, these were worn around the waist with tabs or hooks at the front and back for attaching a sanitary towel between the legs. The garments all but disappeared when new 'beltless' pads Stayfree and New Freedom – which could be adhered directly to underwear – were launched, but some consumers preferred to stick with what they knew as this packet advertising a ‘free belt’ from 1989 demonstrates.