Lysol douche ad, 1928, U.S.A. Lysol, which today scours toilets and bathroom floors, scoured vaginas (and helped kill sperm) in an earlier era, when, I guess, women were hardier. (Andrea Tone, in Devices & Desires [2001, Hill & Wang], reports on the vaginal scalding Lysol caused, and read a 1936 critique of Lysol and Zonite douching). Note the powerful, horrible word "disinfectant." This is a black-and-white ad from McCall's Magazine, July 1928, the same month that future Life magazine photographer Lee Miller unwittingly appeared in the first menstrual hygiene ad to feature a real person, a Kotex ad. She was just as surprised, and disappointed, as the rest of the country. Read 1930s criticism of Zonite and Lysol. See Lysol information in old newspapers and Lysol ads from 1948 and 1934 . Visit the odor page.