Patent medicine abuses discredited testimonials before Pond’s revived celebrity endorsement

Evidence

Advertisers themselves had, in limited ways, been using celebrity endorsements—as early as the nineteenth century, Pears’ soap billed itself as the choice of the royal family. But the testimonials for patent medicines from renowned “doctors” as well as grateful patients had queered the practice of testimonials for the most part. And so it took a bit of daring for J. Walter Thompson Company, at Lansdowne’s direction, to resurrect it for Pond’s cold cream, originally marketed not as a beauty product but as a spot remover. — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 222

Categorization

• XREF: Catalogues an early instance of trust deficit from industry abuse, echoing the reputation-economy dynamics in the pre-state trade literature. — connects to: Patent medicine makers fabricated doctor endorsements for credibility — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 114