"The girls who appear in the ads are there for a functional purpose," she said.

They're attractive ... intelligent ... desirable ... interesting ... American ... girls. And essentially they are saying "If I have a vaginal odor problem, it's O. K. for you to have a vaginal odor problem, acknowledge it, and do something about it ... " The nearest comparison I could make is the Clairol advertising. Up until that time (Clairol started advertising) the idea of dying your hair was associated with whores and, you know, not-so-nice people. And nice people were afraid to dye their hair and didn't want to be identified with it. They put a woman with a child in the advertisement to indicate that perfectly decent people ...

"Then you think that girls had this problem but didn't like to talk about it or were ashamed of it?"

"Well, when Warner-Lambert decided to go into this product they had researched the market very carefully. A company of that scope doesn't embark on a major advertising expenditure without having gone out into the field and found out that women were concerned about this and wanted something for it. I mean the concern, the market projections were so strong."

"Have you any idea how that's done?"

"Well, it's done through research," said Miss Prag vaguely. "I really don't know. I only get the results of it. But they don't decide, Oh, here's a spot we haven't tackled yet. Let's make something and then go and scare everyone into it. They had researched the market and they had found out there were many, many women with this .... I tell you frankly I don't identify with the concern." Miss Prag began to laugh. "I don't mean as far as I'm concerned ... But then I don't have hairy arms either.

"There is a certain reluctance for people to acknowledge problems that trouble them," Miss Prag continued. "You get this in interviews in research all the time. They're very frank to say, for instance, that they wear perfume for reasons of sexual attraction, but the truth is what they really are concerned with is being loved and cared for and not lonely and they don't talk about that. It's easier to talk about being sexy than being lonely."

The Pristeen ads emphasize youth and girlishness. "It has sort of pink chiffon smell"; it is essential "to your peace of mind about being a girl. An attractive, nice-to-be-with girl." FDS (for "Feminine Deodorant Spray") and Bidette use the word "woman."

"Was this a conscious choice of words?" I asked.

Miss Prag nodded. "I think the whole world is younger today. I think women think of themselves as girls very late. The word 'girl' has a somehow more universal ring to it. And not only that-young people are really the pace-setters today. They put on mini-skirts and then the mothers started raising their hemlines. I think it's a softer, more feminine image-the girl-than the woman."

Warner-Lambert thinks so too. Unlike Roycemore, which urges with great subtlety that you use its product, Demure, before having sexual intercourse- "You don't sleep with Teddy Bears anymore." Warner Lambert would like you to use its product every morning. "Pristine" means pure, untouched, unspoiled. Those women who are impure, touched and spoiled may spray on virginity and girlishness.

I tried my covering-up-sensuality-and-sexual-desires theory on Miss Prag.

"I really don't know," she said after a long pause. "Certainly odor is a part of the way of giving off sexuality and maybe this is of some concern; maybe this is a motivating factor in women-that they don't accept their own sexuality sufficiently and that's why they want to mask the odors identified with it. I mean that's possible. " But Miss Prag pointed out that this is an odor-conscious society and that everyone, not just anxiety-ridden women, wears underarm deodorant.

Another section of the ad reads, "Pristeen is also very nice to use. It feels light and dry. (Your hands never touch it, or you.)"

"Do you think this is a concern women have?"