What do you think of this fact?
Today Kleenex is basically a synonym for tissue. But blowing your nose wasn’t the plan at all.
Leftovers from the war
The story starts with a material called Cellucotton. In 1914, researchers produced creped cellulose wadding, a soft tissue-like material that Kimberly-Clark turned into products. During World War I, when surgical cotton was scarce, Cellucotton was used to treat wounds. According to the Kleenex brand, Kimberly-Clark also developed a crepe paper during the war that served as a filter in gas masks.
After the war, the company went looking for new uses. Field nurses had found that the material worked well as a disposable pad, so in 1920 Kimberly-Clark launched Kotex, a menstrual pad. Four years later came the next idea.
A tissue for your face cream
Kleenex celebrates June 12, 1924, as its birthday. Its first advertised use, according to the brand itself, was as a “marvelous new way to remove cold cream.” It was meant to replace the face towels people used to wipe off cold cream. Even the 1924 trademark application described the goods as “absorbent pads or sheets for removing cold cream.” The “Kleen” in the name is a playful spelling of “clean,” and the “ex” links it to Kotex.
But customers had their own ideas. In 1927, Kimberly-Clark floated the idea of “absorbent kerchiefs.” A survey then showed that people preferred to use Kleenex as a disposable handkerchief, and in the 1930s letters flooded in from customers who recommended it for colds. The company switched gears and adopted the line “The handkerchiefs you can throw away.” Nationwide ads for the new use started in 1930, and sales doubled within a year.
Bonus fact: The makeup roots never fully disappeared. According to Kleenex, stage actors and actresses in the 1950s reportedly still used the tissues every night to take off cold cream and cosmetics.
So the brand didn’t change what it sold. Its customers simply changed what it was for.