Peddlers manufactured medicine publicly as spectacle to sell dubious remedies
Evidence
While spectators watched, Clark would reach into a sack, pluck out a fresh snake, asphyxiate it with ether, and plunge it into a pot of boiling water. As he did so, fatty remnants of the snake rose to the top, which Clark skimmed and, on the spot, mixed into an elixir. The resulting potion he called “Clark Stanley’s Snake Oil Liniment” and sold to onlookers. The Snake Oil, Clark boasted, had the power to cure many ailments: it was “good for man and beast.” — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 86
Categorization
- XREF: The live manufacturing-as-theater connects to modern infomercial and live-demo marketing, and to how ‘snake oil’ became the archetypal label for fraudulent claims. — connects to: Tobacco companies manufactured physician endorsements without substantive proof — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 1249; Patent medicines relied on mysterious secret ingredients to feed consumer hope — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 97; Patent medicine makers fabricated doctor endorsements for credibility — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 114 (+2 more)
Broader Connections
- Patent medicines relied on mysterious secret ingredients to feed consumer hope
#expands(0.85) — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 97 - Patent medicine makers fabricated doctor endorsements for credibility
#expands(0.80) — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 114 - Early snake oil sellers invented mythologized origin stories to lend products credibility
#expands(0.80) — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 87 - Patent medicine marketing techniques still dominate modern consumer advertising
#expands(0.75) — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 98