Early snake oil sellers invented mythologized origin stories to lend products credibility

Evidence

Of Stanley’s life we have only his own account, which he called The Life and Adventures of the American Cowboy, by Clark Stanley Better Known as the Rattlesnake King, a slim volume that functioned both as an autobiography and advertising brochure. By his account he was born in central Texas in the 1850s and hit the cattle trail at age fourteen. After more than a decade as a cowboy, he was invited one day to visit the Hopi Indians to witness their secret snake dance. Befriending the medicine man, who was impressed with Stanley’s Colt revolver and “fancy shooting,” he was invited to live with the Indians and learn their secrets, including, most precious of all, “the secret of snake oil” that was entrusted to him alone. — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 87

Categorization

• XREF: The fabricated Native American origin story is an early case of cultural appropriation used as marketing — connects to modern appropriative branding and to the reader’s interest in attention-capture techniques. — connects to: Snake oil was originally a genuine Chinese anti-inflammatory remedy — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 1170; Peddlers manufactured medicine publicly as spectacle to sell dubious remedies — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 86; Deception and fabrication inhered in myth from its origin (+1 more)
• SEED: Article angle: the ‘secrets of indigenous peoples’ marketing trope as a recurring strategy of attention merchants, from snake oil to ayahuasca retreats.

Broader Connections

• Patent medicine makers fabricated doctor endorsements for credibility #expands (0.80) — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 114
• Deception and fabrication inhered in myth from its origin #exemplifies (0.75)