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Patent medicines were for the most part actually trademarked medicines, not patented. The word is given to various medical compounds sold under a variety of names and labels. It has become particularly associated with the sale of drug compounds in the nineteenth century under cover of colourful names and even more colourful claims. The promotion of these compounds was one of the first major products of the advertising industry. Many advertising and sales techniques were pioneered by patent medicine promoters. Patent medicines were sometimes called nostrums, a Latin word meaning "ours" or "our own." This refers generally to any proprietary mixture of drugs.
1 Patent medicines and advertising
frame Phallic symbolism seems obvious in this label for Mugwump Specific.The phrase patent medicine comes from the early days of the marketing of medical elixirs, when those who found favour with royalty were issued letters patent authorising the use of the royal endorsement in advertising. The name stuck well after the American Revolution made these endorsements by the crowned heads of Europe obsolete. Few if any of the nostrums were actually patented; chemical patents came into use in the USA in 1925, and in any case attempting to monopolize a drug, medical device, or medical procedure was considered unethical by the standards upheld during the era of patent medicine.
Instead, the compounders of these nostrums used a primitive version of branding to distinguish themselves from the crowd of their competitors. Many familiar names from the era live on in brands such as Luden Brothers' cough drops, Lydia E. Pinkham's vegetable compound for women, Fletcher's Castoria, and even Angostura bittersBitters are an herbal preparation with a bitter flavor. Bitters were formerly manufactured as patent medicines, but most now are sold to be used in cocktails. They are not to be confused with bitter a type of British ale. Some of the different kinds of bi, which was once marketed as a stomachIn anatomy, the stomach is an organ in the alimentary canal used to digest food. Generally, the stomach's primary function is not the adsorption of nutrients from digested food; this task is usually performed by the intestine. Latin names for the stomach remedy. Many of these medicines, though sold at high prices, were made from quite cheap ingredients. Their composition was well known within the pharmacyPharmacy is the profession of compounding and dispensing medication. More recently, the term has come to include other services related to patient care including clinical practice, medication review, drug information, etc''. Some of these new roles are no trade, and druggists would sell (for a slightly lower price) medicines of almost identical composition that they had manufactured themselves. To protect profits, the branded medicine advertisements laid great emphasis on the brand-names, and urged the public to accept no substitutes.
Touting these nostrums was one of the first major projects of the advertising industry. A number of AmericanThe United States of America also referred to as the United States U. America ¹ or the States is a federal republic in central North America, stretching from the Atlantic in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west. It shares land borders with Canada in institutions owe their existence to the patent medicine industry, most notably a number of the older almanacAn almanac (sometimes spelled almanack is an annual publication containing tabular information in a particular field or fields often arranged according to the calendar. Astronomical data and various statistics are also found in almanacs, such as the timess, which were originally given away as promotional itemA promotional item is merchandise given away free of charge to the public in an effort to promote a business or increase interest or sales in products. In Silicon Valley these items are called schwag . Promotional items also are used in politics to promots by patent medicine manufacturers. Perhaps the most successful industry that grew up out of the business of patent medicine advertisements, though, was founded by William H. Gannett in Maine in 1866. There were few circulating newspapers in Maine in that era, so Gannett founded a periodical, Comfort, whose chief purpose was to propose the merits of Oxien, a nostrum made from the fruit of the baobab tree, to the rural folks of Maine. Gannett's newspaper became the first publication of the Gannett Corporation, whose flagship newspaper today is USA Today.
Another method of publicity undertaken mostly by smaller firms was the "medicine show," a travelling circus of sorts which offered vaudeville style entertainments on a small scale, and which climaxed in a pitch for the nostrum being sold. Muscleman acts were especially popular on these tours, for this enabled the salesman to tout the physical vigour offered by the potion he was selling. Shills were frequently employed by the showmen, who would step forward from the crowd and offer "unsolicited" testimonials about the benefits of the medicine for sale. Oftentimes, the nostrum was manufactured and bottled in the same wagon that the show travelled in. The Kickapoo Indian Medicine Company became one of the largest and most successful medicine show operators; their shows had an American Indian or Wild West theme, and employed many Native Americans as spokespeople. The medicine show lived on in American folklore and Western movies long after they had vanished from public meeting places.
