By Hank Berrien - The Daily Wire
Finally feminists won’t have to blow their noses into a misogynist tissue.
After complaints from feminists in recent years that the large-size tissues it sold branded "Mansize" were sexist, Kleenex is rebranding their issues "Kleenex Extra Large." That change comes after 62 years of “Mansize” tissues. In 1956, when they were first introduced, Kleenex said the “mansize” tissues would "stay strong when wet."
As CNN reports. Kimberly-Clark, Kleenex's parent company, said there had been a "consistent increase of complaints" about the branding. The company stated:
Kleenex Mansize tissues have been on shelves for the past 60 years. Over that time, the brand has always been characterized by a much larger tissue size, which is both soft and strong. It was launched at a time when large cotton handkerchiefs were still very popular and Kleenex offered a unique disposable alternative.
Despite that our consumer service is registering consistent increase of complaints on gender concern related to Mansize subbrand. Kimberly-Clark in no way suggests that being both soft and strong is an exclusively masculine trait, nor do we believe that the Mansize branding suggests or endorses gender inequality. Our Mansize tissues remain one of our most popular products, with 3.4 million people buying these tissues every year.
Nevertheless, as we remain committed to developing the best possible products for our consumers and take any feedback extremely seriously, we decided to renovate our current product and update the product subbrand as Kleenex Extra Large.
Sam Smethers, who runs the women's organization The Fawcett Society in Great Britain, joked that the rebrand "is not to be sneezed at. Removing sexist branding such as this is just sensible 21st century marketing. But we still have a long way to go before using lazy stereotypes to sell products is a thing of the past.”
Some complaints regarding the “sexist” Kleenex: From 2016,, this tweet was written by a woman who is currently the Chief Open Innovation Officer at Mozilla:
Or this from this year:
In 1925, the first Kleenex tissue ad was used in magazines; it boasted "the new secret of keeping a pretty skin as used by famous movie stars..." In the 1930s, Kleenex was being marketed with the slogan “Don’t Carry a Cold in Your Pocket” and people started to use it instead of handkerchiefs.
In April 2018, CNBC reported, Huggies and Kleenex producer Kimberly-Clark reported better-than-expected first-quarter profit and sales on Monday, helped by strong growth in tissue sales. Shares of the company rose 2.5 percent at $102.50 in premarket trading on Monday. Revenue jumped 5 percent to $4.73 billion in the quarter ended March 31, beating analysts' average estimate of $4.60 billion. Sales rose 3 percent in its personal care segment, which includes brands such as Huggies and Pull-Ups, and 9 percent in its consumer tissue segment which includes Kleenex and Scott.